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A writing plateau, I mean. A month ago, my fingers were flying over the keys. The flow of my sequel was non-stop. I couldn’t spend enough time writing. Then, I took a break to do some editing, and the flow stopped. I was very smart–because I know myself–and got the sequel to a good plot point before I stopped to edit. I did it mainly because I knew this would happen. I still have a goal of finishing before my birthday, but I am much farther behind than I’d planned to be.

I’ve got about 10 new pages now, but it’s not the flow I had before. I started scheduling writing marathons and such, wanting to meet up with people and write. I’m going to start kidnapping myself after work again and going to cafes to write. I swear my apartment is like a black hole that sucks up all energy when I arrive. I open my laptop and end up surfing the web. On a high note,  I did finish a fan fiction chapter for a story that’s been dead in the water for 6 months :D. Happy about that? Yes, I am. But is it what I’m supposed to be doing? No, lol.

I think my problem with the sequel is, as I’ve said before, that I’ve never gotten this far in the story I’m telling. I’ve always had the plan for The Fourth Piece in mind. There are so many drafts of it. But making it to Book II and knowing all the ground I have to cover? Maybe I’m intimidated. I don’t know. I really like what I have. I think it’s exciting, and I think it has the potential to be better than The Fourth Piece, but I have to deliver. It does make me nervous. I slurp in all the feedback I can get as I write The Third Gambit (Book II). I want to know how it’s doing, if it’s losing people, if I’m drowning the audience in backstory or leaving them too thirsty for knowledge.

I miss having deadlines. When I was in grad school, once a month, I had to have 25 pages of something to submit. I’m a member of multiple writers groups, but I’m cheating. I have so much of The Third Gambit already written that I have materials for two months worth of meetings. So, there’s no pressure there. But you know what, I should respect my personal deadlines the same way I’d respect an assignment’s deadline. I’m really going to shape up and do this. I will write something on my book everyday, even if it’s only a few words. Who knows, those few words might be what turns the flow back on. I still have another round of editing to do on The Fourth Piece, but this time I won’t stop writing new stuff while I’m going through edits.

New news (hah!) for The Fourth Piece. I got to do some sketching. I haven’t sketched in years, but I’m not terrible at it. My main characters, the Ladreth brothers, have strange markings on their spines that end up being very important to the story. I describe the marks, and then was asked to draw them because they might look cool on the cover. I sent over a rough sketch, which will be redesigned, and I might get to see a version of it on the new cover mock-ups. What else? Networking is awesome. I know some fabulous people and authors who are imparting me with their knowledge…and connections for promotion. It’s all so exciting!

New news (haha!) for me? I just got Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. Somebody did spoil a little of it for me, but I’m still looking forward to reading it. I’m not quite ready to leave the world of the Shadow Hunters just yet. Do I hope to read some cameos of Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood? Yes! Do I want to see Jem and Tessa wander into the plot and never leave? YES. But I’m also happy for a new story too. So, I’m sure I’ll love it. Other news? I’m moving to a new place! Totally renovated, which is what I like. Maybe a new space will spark some creativity (here’s for hoping!)

So, back to writing… and reading!… and editing. Until next time! 🙂

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Reading from Chapter 5 of The Fourth Piece in Lawrence Ladreth’s POV.

The entire book is told from the shifting first person perspectives of four brothers. Lawrence is the one often misdiagnosed by strangers as having ADHD.

 

 

I read this section so fast that even I am amazed at the speed. I talk fast, listen to my audio books at double speed, and am a fast reader, silently and aloud, LOL. I haven’t read to an audience in years and really need to practice to a beat now.

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the book of flash

 

I’ve realized something after my reading on Thursday. It’s something I’ve known, but it’s really funny to actually see it in action. I talk fast, I read faster. I used to get frustrated listening to audio books because I could have read a page twice over before the narrator finished it once.  Then a genius friend said: “Um… why don’t you increase the speed?” As a result, I always listen to audio books at double speed. So, when I got up to my reading, I practiced vocal inflection, voices, being animated, using my stomach voice to keep from being nasal, but I read the section as fast as I read things to myself or listen to audio books.

Watching the playback, I found it simply amazing how fast I could act out a section. It was like watching a video in semi-fast forward. My mouth was going at 60 mph. I thought the reading went well, I got some giggles, had some folks interested, but yeah, it was FAST. I will start practicing with a metronome. (Yes, I’m a dork and was in band for 6 years. I know all about tapping your foot to a clicking beat to keep tempo. 😛 )  I wonder if there’s a metronome app. Heck, there’s an app for everything. I’m going to look into it.

Overall, I love reading aloud. A few people who didn’t know me well mistook my fast reading for nervousness and a need to practice before an audience to get comfortable with reading. When you tell people that’s not the case, they all give you that “oh sure” or the “you’re getting defensive” look. But it really isn’t the case. I used to do story times for kids, and I used to read to the high school classes I taught (for one year before I ran screaming for the door and another profession, lol. Teachers you are saints with a higher calling.) I’m comfortable reading to people. I just haven’t done it in a two years and have developed Quicksilver/Flash tendencies. I need to set a beat.

Now, here’s some publishing news! Cover art for my book… the cover artist who initially had the job was dismissed and a new artist has taken over. I’m really excited to get to see some new cover designs. I also received my second round of edits from the publisher, so I’m getting started on that. I also think I’m ready to submit the first two chapters of the sequel to the publisher. I wanted to let my writers groups go through them first, and they finally have.

Okay, to close this entry out, if you go to the category, The Fourth Piece Readings, you’ll find pictures and links to the speedy reading of a selection from The Fourth Piece. I’ll see if I can actually upload the video onto the blog, but I think it may be too big. If it is, as I said before, there will be links :).

Until next time, take care!

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Someone's There

Admitting what you are will end everything you know. Embracing who you are will start a war…

Life is great when you’re good-looking and popular…so long as no one knows you’re a vulatto. Being half-alien gets you labeled “loser” quicker than being a full vader. So it’s a good thing Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence can easily pass for human—until the night of the party. Nothing kills a good time faster than three brothers sharing a psychic vision of a fourth brother who’s off-world and going to die unless they do something. But when your brother’s emergency happens off-planet, calling 9-1-1 really isn’t an option.

In their attempt to save a brother they barely remember, Devon, Lyle and Lawrence expose themselves to mortal danger and inherit a destiny that killed the last four guys cursed with it. In 2022, there are humans and aliens, heroes and monsters, choices and prophecies—and four brothers with the power to choose what’s left when the gods decide they’re through playing games.

Book I in The Order’s Last Play series
Publication date coming soon.

Published 2016 by 48fourteen

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addicted to pinterest

This article could also be titled “How Pinterest Can Be Addictive”. After choosing models that I think are good visual representatives of my characters, I couldn’t let them go. No, I can’t use those people on my book cover, though I wish I could. But I don’t make enough money to pay any of those gorgeous people to grace my cover. So… this is where Pinterest comes in. I created a board of my cast, pinning up pics of models and actors and labeling them. It was really fun.

Now, ask me what I’ve written.

Uh… well, you see. What had happened was…

I’ve turned into a couch potato, lol. I know I need to write. I know I’m behind. I signed up to do a writing marathon with a group of writers I’ve never met before, out in Oakland. I really need to get back on the ball, and off Pinterest and Tumblr, and Twitter, and Goodreads, and whatever else I will find to distract me between the marathon and now. But honestly, I’m so excited about what’s going on with The Fourth Piece, I can’t concentrate very well on other things.

It’s like now I finally feel comfortable talking about the story. If you want to see a write-up for it, visit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29058267-the-fourth-piece . That’s right. I have my own Goodreads Author page! I won’t have my own Amazon Author page until the book actually comes out. But, man, I feel legit. I’m doing things to self-promote, like starting an Author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eardell/. If you guys click on some of these links, and feel so inclined to like me or follow me or rate me, I’ll give you gummy bears. Well, imaginary gummy bears. That way you can pretend they’re all cherry or whatever flavor you prefer. It’s the thought that counts, right? 😀

So, anyway, I wrote this post, because I wanted to share my Pinterest board for my characters with you all: https://www.pinterest.com/eboniardell/orders-last-play-characters/ . I’m such a nerd, I know. Don’t ask me what I’m watching on Amazon Video right now. You don’t want to know.

Yeah, okay, so I might be watching Ninja Turtles, the Nickelodeon version that turned incredibly dark in its last few seasons. (Hey, it’s funny and it’s got the spirit of the cheesy 80-90’s Turtles I grew up with.)

All right, so wish me luck on my writing marathon. I do still want to meet my goal of finishing the sequel to The Fourth Piece in my birthday month of April. Here’s a plus, I really like how the sequel’s going and maybe I’m afraid to write more because I think I’ll mess it up, lol. Silly, right? Eh, it happens.

Next time, I hope to be popping in to tell you about some sequel-writing progress and giving out further publication details. I can’t wait to be able to unleash a cover for people to see.

Take care!

 

 

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e. ardell

I’m on a mission to get on everyone’s nerves. I can’t help it. I want to show off. Everything that’s going on right now is so amazing. Editing, discussing cover art and tag-lines and back-cover summaries. Also, if you follow this link you can visit the publisher’s site to see ME at: https://48fourteen.com/profile/E.+Ardell/

So let me tell you how much it is to discuss cover art. First, I got to find a bunch of covers of other books in my genre that I really like and think could translate well to the series. Then I got to think about concepts like what scene or image do I want on the cover, and do I want cover models, a symbol, and what not. Of course I want cover models. 😀 I love books with realistic looking people on the cover. So then I got to send in pictures of actors and models who look like my characters to give the cover artist ideas. Surfing the web for cutie pies that fit my characters’ descriptions was awesome sauce. I even got my sister involved. Next thing I know, it turned into a project to find models and actors for ALL of the characters in the series. I only sent in images of the main characters, so four guys (all cutie pies), but it was a blast finding all those other pictures and making graphics and name plates for them. I think Pinterest and I are going to be best buddies from here on out :D. I can’t wait to see some drafts of what this book cover is going to look like.

The other thing I did was come up with tag-lines. Tag-lines are hook phrases on the front of your book. I made a list of different phrases, some funny, some serious, some cute, and paraded them around my social circles, letting people vote on their favorites. I ranked the tag-lines according to popularity and shipped them out to the publisher. She liked a lot of them.

Now we’re just working on the summary for the back of the book (which I tell you is harder than writing a book itself), and I’m coming up on another round of editing for the manuscript. This has really been a learning process and I love being so involved with everything.

I’m going to close this by saying, if you’re not a Facebook buddy of mine (you should be, jk), the image above is what you missed out on seeing! Click the image and get taken to the link! I appreciate any visits and participation I can get :).

 

 

 

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toot my horn

I turned in all my edits on Sunday, and on Monday and today (Tuesday), I updated all of my social media accounts, submitted a head-shot and an author bio, established my pen name and sent in a summary to go on the back of the book. Here’s what I have to say about all of that: EEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Profound, I know. Soon, I’ll be up on the publisher’s website, and hey, I can post the link so all of you can see it too! I can’t wait to start discussing marketing and… COVER ART! Who doesn’t get excited about cover art? Do I get cover models, do I get a symbol, I don’t know. I think I do have some say in it all, though. And here’s my say on all of this right now: AAAAAAAAAA!!!

So, yeah, I’m tooting my horn. But you know, people put such a negative spin on tooting your own horn. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that you’re doing cool things. Sometimes, if you don’t, no one will ever know what you’re doing and how strongly you feel about it. Feel good about yourself people. If no one else pats you on the back and tells you “good job”, you should. Only you truly know what you went through to accomplish certain tasks.

Okay, so I really didn’t have all that much to say in this post aside from sending off all those materials. It just makes it all feel more real. In the words of Jessie Spano from Saved By the Bell (there I go dating myself again!) “I’m so excited…I’m so excited… I’m so excited.”

Now, I need to get back to sequel-writing. I’m SO very glad of my decision to bring the second story to a good stopping place before going on with the edits for Book I. It has been more than two weeks since I touched the sequel and now I’m starting cold. I’ll get back into the swing of it, but I’m going to need to reread and do a little editing.

That said, I’m going to sign off, so I can do some rereading. Take care and thanks for keeping up with me!

 

 

 

 

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We_Can_Edit

The publishing house’s edits came last Tuesday. Yes, last Tuesday. I read the e-mail from the publisher which gave general directions on how to proceed in the editing process and then gave praise. The editor said: “Wow… this author is freakin’ fabulous!” Made my morning. I went to work in the best mood.

Then, I had to decide when to look at the edits. I have been on such a roll writing the sequel that I didn’t want to switch gears right away. I decided to get book 2 to a good stopping point. I didn’t want to stop in the middle of an action sequence or while I was building tension. I didn’t want to come back and have to reread to try to find that inspiration again. So, I gave myself a deadline. I said that I would write either 25 pages more or complete the current chapter because the story would totally change pace after the occurring events.

But let me tell you how tempting it was to break open those edits. I kept gazing at the e-mail all week, like hmm… just a little peek. But I resisted, because I know me. I would open the attachments and be a No Limit Editing Soldier on book 1 for the next week or so and lose my stride on book 2.

So today, I got to my perfect stopping place in book 2 and cracked open my edits. The first attachment was just a generalized one-pager with overall notes about being careful of word repetitions and overuse of ellipses, em-dashes and dialect. However, there was a special emphasis on the dialect suggestion to let me know that it was only an opinion. So, then I had to think about just how much dialect to change if it isn’t crucial.

So, after I let all that sink in, I opened the actual story with the track changes in it. The notes in the suggestion column are easy to follow, and there are even some compliments tossed in there. The editor offers suggestions for word repetitions and does a good job eliminating unnecessary words.

I look over and see that while my document’s 94,000 words there are only like 1700 revisions throughout the whole piece. So, I’m like okay, that’s really cool.  I’ve heard stories where people say an editor ripped their work to shreds, but here it’s not so. I like the usage of overall suggestions and I love the grammatical advice. Sometimes you just don’t notice lazy habits until someone points them out.

I want to give a shout out to everyone who has ever critiqued or just read through The Fourth Piece. It was a clean manuscript before submission and it’s all because of my unpaid friends and editors. That being said, no matter how clean you think your work is, there’s always stuff that can be better… and always a typo.

Going through the edits and accepting or revising changes and justifying leaving something the same is fun. The only pain now is Microsoft Word. The more comments that are left in a document, the slower the program moves. Grrr…

But it’s okay. I’m making pretty good progress. I think I can have this done in a week, and then I’ll wait and see what happens next!

Oh, and as for the sequel, I reached 115 pages in a month. Hopefully I can get this draft done before my birthday in April. How awesome would that be? Then I’d start… book 3. That’s kind of scary to think about. Book 3 is the end of the main story–a story I’ve wanted to tell since 6th grade.

Sniff, sniff, my baby is growing up.

Thanks for reading my rambles. Until next time!

 

 

 

 

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So, I know I’ve posted before about writing sequels and how much it kind of sucks. The sequel I’m working on now, which is the sequel for the book I signed the publishing contract for 🙂 D :), has had four lives. One of these lives made it to page 220 before I decided the story was going in the wrong direction. The second lived to page 20, before a genius read it and said, “You need to flip-flop the events.” The third had a promising life. It was going smoothly, people in my critique circles loved it….

Then, the publisher accepted my first book and said: “The ending is a little lackluster. Can you spice it up?” So, needless to say, the first book got a new ending which ended the third life of the sequel. Now there were some people who were upset about the third’s brief life and quick death–and hey, I really liked that version of the story too.  But you know what, the fourth life was born about a month ago, and it’s been pouring out of me at rapid speed. It has almost reached 80 pages and, in those 80 pages, the plot has advanced further than 220 pages of the first version of the story. I’m actually in Act II. I’ve never gotten past Act I in the lives of the other sequels. Having to kill that last book is probably the best thing to happen to this story.

So, yeah, I’m having fun writing a sequel. I never thought this would happen, but then I’ve never felt this connected to a sequel either. Maybe it’s because I’m actually pretty comfortable about the events of the first story now, so moving on is something I feel better about doing. That being said, I might get the edits back from the publishing house’s editor that will nicely say: “Write it again!”

We’ll see. I’m so new to this. I’m actually excited to see red marks and wondering how much control I’ll have over the edits if I don’t agree to something. It’ll be interesting and fun.

So… here’s something I promised, some head-shots from my photo shoot a few weeks back. If you noticed, my profile picture has changed. That is head-shot one. Here’s another!

headshot 7

Thanks for reading guys! Happy New Year and take care!

 

 

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So, now it’s time to start thinking about how I’m going to look inside my book jacket and on author pages. I mean, I know some people selfie it up, but I’m not trying to have a selfie in my book. When you see pictures of authors in their books or on their pages, you can automatically tell when those shots are selfies. I don’t want people opening up my book and snorting at my blurry selfies.

I’m a member of a great Meet-up Group and the organizer is  a photographer who believes all women should have a great head-shot for professional purposes. She put together a few head-shot days at a discounted price and offered make-up services. I missed the first one, so when she put the second one I took that as a sign to get my picture taken.

Now here comes the dilemma. I’m infamous for taking mug-shots. I am one of those people who has to smile in all my pictures or I look mean. But you see all these great shots of people not smiling and looking all intense. However, when I try to do these looks, I can picture myself holding a metal plate with a number on it.  So, I went into the photo shoot thinking the pictures would be nice pictures of me, but nothing to write home about because, well, I just don’t take good pictures. I’m the person who runs and ducks and dodges the camera. If I’ve got something to put over my head or face when a camera flashes, I’ll use it.

So, I get to the photographer’s place with my wardrobe changes (excellent reason to shop for myself instead of buying Christmas presents, btw), ready for pictures. I get my make-up done and told how to pose and all the while there’s awesome music playing. I was so comfortable and had a blast singing and dancing and posing, and that blast ended up photographing really well.

I picked out some shots I liked (and those were all before retouch, so I’m really excited to see the end product), and I’ll see which ones I end up keeping. All in all I got some good head-shots today, and a couple of mug-shots, but those were too funny.

Today was great. I’m starting to feel more and more official. Now, I’m just waiting hear back from the editor about story edits. While I’m waiting, I’m still writing. I had to change the ending to the first book, so now I’m rewriting the sequel–again. But this new beginning is really working for me. I’m glad I started anew.

So, next time I post I hope to be able to make comments about the editing process when working with a publisher. Maybe I’ll have one of those head-shots to post too… (and maybe a mug-shot, some of them were hilarious!)

Take care!