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Category Archives: About my Romance Series
Her Dark Angel – Paranormal angel romance teaser – part two
It’s almost the release day for my next novella, and the first in the Her Angel series, Her Dark Angel. You can actually get it now at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, but you’ll have to wait to get it from other sites. To get you all excited about the story, here’s the second teaser for it. This is part two… following on from my previous teaser post.

Her Dark Angel
An angel without a mission, Apollyon lives trapped in Hell guarding the bottomless pit. Surrounded by endless darkness, he longs to fly free on Earth once more but his master hasn’t called him in centuries. When the call finally comes, it’s to serve a new master, a beautiful woman he has often watched over, a woman who has always captivated him.
Serenity is shocked when a gorgeous black-winged angel shows up in her city of Paris claiming that she called him when she was only casting a simple vengeance spell. He’s no other than the angel of death! When Apollyon offers to obey her and help her have revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend, she can’t resist the temptation, but can she resist him? Can an angel as dark as Apollyon ever fall for a mortal woman like her?
Their charade as lovers quickly becomes reality when one dance leads to another and Apollyon proves that he’s as sinful as he looks. His sensual and hungry touch brings Serenity back to life, freeing her from the hurt of being betrayed and reigniting her passion, but she can’t ignore her growing fear. Lost in their moment together, Apollyon realises that there is a reason he heard her call—he’s in love with her.
But will Serenity see past the wings and believe that Apollyon returns her feelings and won’t hurt her? When her ex-boyfriend asks her to forgive him and be with him again, will she take the easy route or will she find the courage to fly away with her dark angel?
Dark, passionate and erotic, Her Dark Angel is a tale of intense desire and deepest forbidden love guaranteed to get your heart racing.
Due for release: August 28th 2010
Excerpt
A fair-haired mortal female stood beside one of the fountains below, her back to him and the warm breeze playing with the short skirt of her dark red dress. The jets of water from the fountains sprayed high, the droplets catching the wind and settling on his skin when it blew towards him.
Apollyon frowned.
It had to be the Devil’s work.
He had been watching her, had cursed, and then she had called him. It was ridiculous. No mortal had the power to call an angel, and he had not had a different master since eternity began and the angels had made a pact with him.
Cautiously, Apollyon swooped down, closer to her, hovering bare metres above her head. Had she called him?
She raised a hand to her face and it lingered there. He couldn’t see what she was doing. Her shoulders heaved and a wave of sorrow and anger washed over him. She was hurting.
He landed mid-way along the bridge over the river behind her and stepped down off the wall, changing his appearance as he did so. His wings didn’t want to disappear and it took several strides towards her before he was sure the mortals wouldn’t see them and that his glamour was falling into place. He changed his clothes, replacing his armour with a fine black suit, with a black shirt and a dark blue tie, and then swept his long hair back and tied it at the nape of his neck in a ponytail.
Finally, he lifted the force that made him invisible to the mortal eye and walked casually towards her. He took the blue handkerchief from his pocket, stepped up behind her, and hesitated for only a moment before touching her shoulder.
“Are you alright?†he said in French, hoping he had the right language and the right words. He hadn’t spoken to anyone in a long time and although he knew modern languages, he had never used them.
She touched her face again, her long fair hair a curtain which he couldn’t see beyond, and sniffed. When she turned to face him, she was smiling. Her hazel eyes lit on the offered handkerchief at first and then slowly ran up his arm to his chest and then towards his face. She was more beautiful in the flesh, her features soft and her eyes round. She could be an angel herself. He hadn’t realised how much shorter than him she would be. She was at least a head shorter, and petite too.
The moment her gaze met his, her expression changed. Her hand stopped close to taking the handkerchief and horror filled her eyes.
“Get away from me.†Her French held a sharp note of panic and then she stormed towards the bridge.
Apollyon frowned, looked at the handkerchief, and then went after her.
She glanced over her shoulder and her pace increased. It was easy to close the gap between them. His strides were longer than hers and her little heeled sandals were clearly not made for a swift escape.
“Leave me alone.â€
Why was she running?
People were staring, murmuring to each other. She was causing a scene and he wasn’t quite sure why.
“Get away from me!†She turned to face him and then backed away, the fear still bright in her eyes. They darkened when she frowned and spoke as though uttering a curse. “Abaddon.â€
He hadn’t heard that name in a long time.
She knew he was an angel.
How? Had his glamour failed? It had been millennia since he’d had to cast one. He looked around them at the watching mortals. None of them looked afraid. If they could see an angel before them as she could, they would be reacting the same as she was. People would be screaming that the Apocalypse was nigh and the world was going to end. He would be in serious trouble with his master.
He remembered that she had called him. Could she see through the glamour? Was she different somehow to other mortals?
“I don’t want to die,†she muttered almost beneath her breath and cast a fearful look his way.
This wasn’t going as he had expected. She wasn’t supposed to have been able to see that he was an angel. She was supposed to have accepted his kind offer of a handkerchief to dry her tears and told him why she was crying so he could figure out what he was doing here and whether someone was playing a trick on him.
Tears spilled down her cheeks and she wrapped her arms around herself, making herself small and making him want to reach out to her and somehow ease her suffering. Whatever pain had caused her to cry, it was still strong within her heart, tormenting her. He could feel it. There was some sort of connection to her that gave him insight into her feelings, a sense that she needed him and that they were supposed to have met here today.
It was ridiculous.
A mortal could never call him. They didn’t have the voice.
He had been alone too long and was dreaming all of this, seeing things as he wanted them and not with clear eyes.
There was only one way of finding out whether she had called him somehow. He had hoped to discover it through casual conversation but that wasn’t an option now. It was time for a more direct approach.
He stepped towards her and she backed away again, holding both of her hands out as though that gesture alone could stop him if he wanted to get to her.
“Please,†she whispered and shook her head, sending more tears tumbling down her pale cheeks.
“Leave her alone.†A burly man started towards him.
Apollyon lost patience and cast his hand out, waving it across the gathered crowd. “There is nothing interesting to see here.â€
Their expressions went slack and they moved as one, drifting off and back into their own lives, moving past him and the mortal woman as though they weren’t even there.
“Oh God, you’re going to kill me.â€
He frowned at her. “Why would you say such a thing?â€
“It’s what you do.†There was accusation in her tone and a hint of bravery.
Courage in the face of death?
A moment ago, she had been fleeing him and now she looked ready to fight.
“I have not done such a thing in a very long time.†He sighed. It was never going to leave him. Spend a few centuries as the angel of death and no one forgets. Everyone presumes you’re still in charge of taking life’s final breath from mortals. Still, it was better than the other rumour that he was the Devil. “There is a fleet of angels who do it now.â€
She didn’t look as though she believed him. Her hands trembled in front of her.
“I didn’t ask for my powers. Please don’t take me there.â€
“Where?†His patience was wearing thin again and he seemed to be unable to get his question out into the open. He tracked back over what she had said.
Powers?
“All the fires of Hell are in your wake… I don’t want to go there. I haven’t done anything wrong.â€
Apollyon looked behind him. All he could see was Paris. The edge of the stone bridge and the murky river, and the city beyond.
“You are gifted.†He looked back at her, deep into her hazel eyes. She nodded. Was this how she had called him? He frowned and looked at the fountains at the other end of the bridge behind him and then at her. “What were you doing there?â€
She looked past him, blinked a few times, and then her eyebrows rose. “Nothing really. Contemplating life, I guess, and how shitty it was.â€
“You did not ask for anything?†He stepped closer to her and this time she didn’t back away. She kept staring at the fountain with wide eyes. Tears lined her dark lashes. All of her fear disappeared and the pain returned. She clutched her hands to her chest, and he felt the hurt well up inside her, overwhelming her.
“Revenge,†she whispered and her gaze darted to him. “I asked for vengeance against that cheating bastard.â€
Cheating? A sinner?
She had called for vengeance and he had heard her, and he had felt compelled to answer and accept her mission. He couldn’t. Contracting with her would break the one between him and his master.
Apollyon looked at her, studying her pale beauty.
She had called him and he had come. She was his master now. He had accepted the mission and the contract the moment he had left Hell.
He was going to get into trouble for this.
It had been a while since he had been on Earth though, and although the angels who watched over mortals now tolerated the old sins and only took them into account at death rather than punished the sinner during their life, he did still hate some of them.
Infidelity in particular.
“Are you really here to kill me?â€
Apollyon smiled and a hint of colour touched her cheeks. “You called me and I came to you, not to take your life but to ease your suffering.â€
She swallowed and looked as though she was going to deny that she was in pain. Apollyon stepped up to her and touched her face. Her skin was warm, soft, and felt good beneath his fingertips. He caressed her cheek, placed his fingers under her chin, and raised her eyes to his.
“Whatever he did to you, I will make him suffer for it, but no man is worth such tears. Your heart will heal in time and you will love again.â€
Her hazel eyes searched his.
Apollyon stared deep into them, feeling a strange warmth travel along his hand from where his fingertips touched her face. It chased through him and finally settled in his chest, burning there, stirring feelings that he had long forgotten existed.
“I will give you the revenge you seek.â€
Those words were distant to his ears even though they issued from his lips.
He was lost in her eyes, in the way she was looking at him with so much warmth.
Was it gratitude that made her look that way?
Or was it something else?
“Are you a goddess?†he whispered, trying to keep his thoughts on track and on his mission.
She shook her head, moving his fingers with her, and licked her lips. He made the mistake of looking at them, watching the soft pink tip of her tongue sweep over them. A surge of hunger swept through him and he took his hand away, shocked by the strength of his desire and the suddenness of it.
“I’m a witch,†she said, matter of fact, with a little shrug.
Apollyon stared at her. Was he making a terrible mistake by helping her? A part of him said to leave now before it was too late and he became too deeply involved with her.
He couldn’t though.
She had cast a spell on him.
And he was a slave to her.
Buy the book at Amazon.com – http://amzn.to/aqpZR0
Buy the book at Amazon.co.uk – http://amzn.to/brpST2
Almost release day!!! Not long to wait now!
Posted in 2010 releases, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel, paranormal romance, urban fantasy
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Vampires Realm stories – what’s next?
A lovely reader emailed me yesterday asking all manner of questions about the Vampires Realm series. I was thrilled to have someone ask me about River and Ineru, and whether they would ever have their story written. I have notes for it, as I do for quite a few Vampires Realm series stories, but it wasn’t actually on my list of stories to write soon.
She also asked about Hyperion and whether he would have his own love, and his own story too. He does have his own love, a true love that he has never forgotten since meeting and then leaving her. She’s mentioned in Winter’s Kiss. He only mentions her by whispering her name – Sakura.
The reader got me thinking about the series last night and what stories I have notes for and want to write for it. There’s a few novels to write, and I have some novellas. The novellas mainly introduce new characters into the Vampires Realm series. The novels deal with the stories of those characters we have already met in previous stories, or have heard about. I’m sure I’ll manage to somehow bring more stories to life via these stories too, dropping hints at things to come and such. There’s definitely some of that in Midnight.
So now I’m thinking about Vampires Realm and I really want to get writing the next vampire romance in this series. This is either because I’m rejuvenated and excited by the series (which I am) or because the muse is so cranky because I haven’t written anything in weeks as I’ve been doing my website redesign work that he’s desperate for me to write anything and this seems like a pretty good chance for that to happen! (maybe a little of that too).
It’s opinion time. The novellas I have planned will definitely get written this year/next year, but I have a slew of novels not in the Vampires Realm series that I want to write too. I could probably squeeze a couple of Vampires Realm novels in to my writing schedule for next year though. So, what do you think I should choose as the novels to write? Here’s a rundown.
Blood Moon
Mia and Dmitri’s story about how they met and came to be together. Historical vampire/werewolf romance.
Midnight
Oneiric’s (in Seventh Circle) story about how he met Clare/Eve and the terrible mess they found themselves in, and got themselves (and a lot of the world) out of.
Forever After
Ineru and River’s story about a love that transcends time as River is reincarnated over and over until he finally finds his way back to Ineru. But will he love her now that he’s a vampire hunter?
Untitled
Hyperion and Sakura’s story. Hyperion falls in love with a young geisha, only to have to leave her when she discovers that he’s a vampire. What will he do when she returns to him as part of the eastern party he must entertain at his mansion? Can he win her heart again now that she has become a vampire? Did she do it so she would find him one day?
What shall I write?
Read about the Vampires Realm series at http://www.vampiresrealm.com and http://www.felicityheaton.com
Posted in paranormal romance, vampire romance, vampires, Vampires Realm, witches
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Review for Winter’s Kiss – werewolf / vampire romance novel
The lovely Melissa at Spellboundbybooks.com won a copy of Winter’s Kiss a few months ago and kindly posted a review on her website!
Melissa said:
“There is so much inner turmoil with each character all throughout the book. Winter has a duty to his Lord and falling for a girl who is a werewolf is a big no-no in the vampire community, punishable by death. Nika has just been turned into a werewolf against her will, and watched her village and father die. She falls in love with Winter and can’t understand what is stopping them being together.Â
A fabulous book told in third person present tense, in both Nika and Winter’s POV. Winter’s Kiss is a tale of forbidden love destined to fail and well worth the read. (Theres a bit of violence and a raunchy sex scene too)”
Read the full review: http://bit.ly/bEmhCK
The tales of the mansion near Nika’s remote Russian village say that its lord drinks blood to live and that the guards are dead men walking, but that doesn’t stop Nika from falling for one of them—a man who seemingly hasn’t changed in twenty years, a man she wishes would be hers. One snowy spring night, her world and his collide when she is attacked by wolves and he rides in on a black horse to rescue her. But her knight in shining armour is far from saintly. He is a vampire, and she is becoming a werewolf, and love between such species is forbidden—the penalty death.
Winter is a commander of the Validus, the most powerful vampire bloodline in Europe. Faithful to his family and his lord since his turning one thousand years ago, he follows the law to the letter and places duty above all else, but his resolve is about to be tested in the most painful way and his world shaken beyond salvation. The girl he watched grow into a woman, a woman who has stolen his heart, is now a werewolf and his dream of making her his has been shattered. Only vengeance can be his now or the Law Keepers will hunt him down and kill both him and Nika.
But Winter’s plan to take Nika home to her family only leads to her witnessing the destruction of her village and the death of her father at the hands of the werewolf trying to claim her, and Winter finds that he can’t leave her. His heart demands that he protects Nika from the werewolf, Willem, by killing him and that he finds her a new home, somewhere she will be safe without him, for he must even protect her from himself. But Nika tempts him more than he can bear and it isn’t long before he finds himself treading the knife’s edge between upholding the law and succumbing to desire.
Nika does everything in her power to convince Winter to stay with her, to go against the laws and risk death, but in the end will she have done enough? When they reach the last bastion of the werewolves, will Winter leave her with her kin? Will the nights they spend together change his heart and his mind, or will she spend eternity dreaming of Winter’s kiss?
THE VAMPIRES REALM STORIES ALL STAND ALONE AND DO NOT NEED TO BE READ IN ORDER. THEY ARE LINKED ONLY BY THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY ARE SET. IF YOU ENJOY THIS STORY, BE SURE TO READ THE OTHERS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS DARK AND PASSIONATE WORLD.
Only $3.99
Buy online at:
– Amazon Kindle US
– Amazon Kindle UK
– iBookstore
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Posted in reviews, vampire romance, vampires, Vampires Realm, werepanther
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Upcoming romance releases
It has been a while since I’ve had a release that hasn’t been a short freebie. Sorry about that. I focused so much on trying to get an agent that I didn’t have any releases. I’ve been working hard to rectify that and I’m happy to say that I now have one complete novella, Her Dark Angel, to release at the end of the month.
It has been sooooo long since I’ve had a new release that needed promoting that I’ve completely forgotten the process. Lol. It’s going to be a steep learning curve again. I need to get ads in place, and blog appearances, and reviews requested.
My release after that, at least releases that aren’t part of my free A Day in the Life, series, is going to be Her Fallen Angel around Halloween, and then following that it will be Her Warrior Angel, in December. Yes, the Her Angel series are all sort of linked. Much like my Sons of Lyra and Daughters of Lyra series, you don’t have to read them in order. Characters do make appearances in the other novellas though, so you might want to read them in order to know who is who.
I have the second draft of Her Fallen Angel finished, but now I’m thinking that I want to change the ending to make it more of an ending and more dramatic. At the moment, it’s more of a set up for the third novella, but I don’t want readers to feel they’ve read an incomplete story. So I’m changing the ending. I have one in mind. I’ll read the novella once I’ve finished typing up my Hades’ Boys notes and change the ending when I get there to make it better and just how I want it.
I’m really hoping everyone enjoys my angels. They’re rather yummy. Need I say more?
Next year I’ll release a bunch of novels that I have which are either complete or almost complete at the moment. Yes, those four novels you’ve all been reading about will be coming out. That’s Love Immortal (demi-gods, vampires, paranormal people, and werewolves), Ascension (a witch & her half-demon hero), Forbidden Blood (vampire romance) and Heart of Darkness (vampire romance).
I still need to make the covers for them, but I’ll work on those when my website is live. I’ll get the covers for Her Fallen Angel, Her Warrior Angel and Love Immortal done soon and then post them all so you can shout out what you think of them.
The releases of the four novels will be spread out over 2011, and I’ll be writing more novels and novellas.
At the moment, I have ideas in storage for three novellas (all paranormal romances), and six/seven novels (paranormal romance, dark fantasy romance, and science-fiction romance). I won’t get all of them written by the end of next year, but I can try. Some of the ideas have more notes for them than others. With novellas, I don’t generally write masses of notes. It’s quicker just to write them, and they have fewer twists than novels, so need less planning.
I also want to do second-editions of a few of my earlier 2006/2007 stories if possible. I have at least 4 that I want to edit again and improve. I’ll see how that goes and consider doing the rest. It’s all go again!
Posted in 2010 releases, 2011 releases, Ascension, forbidden blood, Hades' Boys, Heart of Darkness, Her Dark Angel, Her Fallen Angel, Her Warrior Angel, Love Immortal
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The indie author in me
I’ve been thinking a lot this past year and a half. Last year, I spent a lot of time writing and editing Love Immortal, and a few other novels. I wasn’t very productive in terms of ebook releases, so apologies for that, but I’ll make up for it now. I’ve tried my hand at agents, but with a book that is 150,000 words long, and needs to be that length, I haven’t had much hope. I was going to try again with another novel, Ascension, a witch/demon romance that is only 90,000 words long, but then realised that I’m writing longer novels these days. My normal word count for a novel is now in the 125,000 word area. That’s far too long for most publishers at the moment. I think I’m better off sticking with ebooks and going full indie.
I sat down and considered why I wanted an agent. I guess it’s a matter of feeling validated. But then I started looking at all the great reviews, the wonderful emails and messages from readers, and how well my books sell, and I realised that I don’t really need an agent to feel validated. I’m an author. I write independently, but I still write, and I still take pride in my stories and do my best, and readers see that and enjoy my stories. When it comes down to it, that’s the most important thing to me—readers enjoying my stories. I want to reach as many as possible and share my stories with them.
So rather than spending time chasing agents, I’m going to spend time where it counts for more—chasing readers. I want to reach more of them and build my readership, and this is something that I can do as an indie author. I love being indie, and I was always torn between indie and contracted when I was submitting to agents. I think the larger part of me wanted to remain indie. I’m not just saying that because of the rejections. I really mean it. I love being hands-on with my stories, with readers, and with where I market and distribute my ebooks.
Right now, there’s a sort of indie revolution happening. It’s the revolution that myself and my friend, Maria, have been awaiting for four years, and it seems a bit silly to go switching sides now.
I’ve been a part of the indie author cooperative, Alinar Publishing, for those four years. We created the cooperative because in 2006, indie authors couldn’t get the distribution as freely as they can now thanks to Amazon, Smashwords, and other outlets. Now that I can distribute easily myself, I’m going to leave the haven of Alinar Publishing and strike out on my own. I want the world to see that I’m indie to the core and that isn’t going to happen whilst I have an umbrella company name attached to me. I love Alinar, but it’s time for me to fly the nest.
Of course, the transition isn’t that easy. I have to completely re-do my website as I want to sell my ebooks direct from there in HTML and PDF formats. This is tricky, and very time consuming, but since I built the Alinar Publishing website, most of the difficult code for checking out, basket, signing up for an account, etc is already at my disposal. Believe me, that’s a great thing since it took me around 4 months to initially build the Alinar website and all it entails.
I have a new design for my website, and I’ve been working hard on it these past few weeks, spending a lot of my weekend time coding it and testing. I’ve even managed to stave off my hunger for playing Final Fantasy XIII, which I foolishly started playing whilst near the middle of the grand re-design of my website. Silly. I’ve still managed to clock up a good 25+ hours on the game though. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.
I’m almost done with my website, and it will launch soon. The first book released on my new website, and completely independently, will be Her Dark Angel. I have many more exciting releases lined up though, so it will be a big time for my website and for me, and also a busy time as I’ll need to arrange various blog appearances, interviews, reviews, etc.
Here’s to being a fully fledged indie author!
Posted in Ascension, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel, Love Immortal
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Not so summer hiatus
Well, my summer hiatus turned out to be not so much of a hiatus after all! Instead of focusing on programming languages, reading, relaxing and learning Japanese, I ended up getting frustrated at my programming languages learning (Yeah, I got stuck on a chapter, but I’ve got it down now) and wound up writing up a massive stack of on-paper notes for my Hades’ Boys paranormal romance / urban fantasy series onto my computer.
I’m really glad that I’ve been able to use some time to type them up though. I’ve been typing them now for a few weeks and I’ve amassed a rather frightening amount of words on screen. There are seven brothers, so seven books, and so far I’ve typed out 45,801 words in eight documents (one is a general notes document). I obviously have more notes for the earlier books in the series, as I’ll probably have to write at least the first three before fleshing out the remaining four. I also have more notes to write up, especially for the general notes document. And character bios to type up too.
I’d love to get these written, but, at the moment, I need to focus on building a bunch of releases that will cover me whilst I’m writing these stories. I want to write them all together, so my flow remains constant and I’m in the world and the characters. I don’t want to have to break into them by writing novellas and other stories, or editing during my writing phase for them. I suppose it’s all down to how much time it’ll take me to write them. The last thing I want to do is to release the first one without writing the rest. I don’t want to end up not finishing the series.
I’m thinking they’ll all be around the 100,000 word mark, which feels about right to me for this sort of story. Writing a 100,000 word story in first draft, when I have it planned quite well, usually takes me around four or five weeks. I write fast. Of course, that depends on any interruptions that might crop up. I never write when I’d have to break off to go on holiday (oh, what a shame! I need a good holiday…) or have other things pressing on me. If I had a straight run at these seven stories, and take into account a couple of weeks of planning time for each novel, and the maximum five weeks per novel to write… that’s 7 x 7 weeks… 49 weeks. Eep! A year then basically. Hopefully, I would get them done quicker than that. Even then, I would end up with a massive stack of editing to wade through the year after. Grr.
Maybe I’ll have to switch between writing the first drafts and editing the earlier stories to keep the ball moving.
At the moment, I have a decent amount of releases to cover next year, but I have other stories I want to write in that time. More about that later though!
Ja ne! (later!)
Posted in dark fantasy romance, Hades' Boys, paranormal romance, urban fantasy
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Writing progress and taking a hiatus
My writing is going to be taking a bit of a back seat over summer as I need to study some new skills for my career and this means dedicating time to it, and taking that time from my writing. I’ll continue to blog and post competitions and things. I’m sure that I’ll be doing something writing related and I do have a few releases to put out over summer.
There’s just a lot to do at work and I feel as though I need to split my time more effectively in order to keep progressing in my career. Unfortunately, writing does suck up a lot of my spare time, so it’s that which has to give on this occasion. I have been so focused on learning new things since coming back from holiday that I couldn’t really keep my attention fixed on completing the second draft of Heart of Darkness. I wasn’t giving it the attention it deserved and my editing was turning more into a lazy reading session. That’s not good! So I’ve decided to put it on hold for now, complete a massive list of learning tasks for my job, and then approach the edit with fresh eyes (after a good read of some of my editing books) and I’m sure everything will be much better for it.
I sometimes take breaks like this and it always refreshes me and gives me the energy to start writing again. Of course, I’m stuck in edit-Hell at the moment as I have so many stories to edit (and so many waiting to be written) that it just seems as though that’s all I’ll be doing forever!
I think reading a bit of Love Immortal the other day really hit it home that I was doing lazy editing on Heart of Darkness. With Love Immortal, I went all out, pulled out those stops and really got stuck in on the editing. Approached and defeated a lot of passives, he/she sentences, and weak constructions. I haven’t really been doing that with Heart of Darkness and some of my other stories as I was a bit disheartened by the number of rejections that Love Immortal received from agents (but I do think that was a result of the 155,000 word count!). I need to recapture that dedication to editing and really polish up my stories to give them the best chance they have, and I can’t do that when I have a head full of programming languages and other things. Lol.
Heavens… this is beginning to sound like a quit post. Don’t worry! I’m not hanging up my pad and pen just yet. I’ll be back on that editing wagon soon enough (hopefully the writing one too).
I have the release of Her Dark Angel coming at the end of August. That should be exciting. With my focus firmly fixed on gunning for print and an agent, I haven’t released a paid-for story in a long time. I’ve completely forgotten the whole review submission nightmare and promotion insanity! That should be a lovely way of getting back on the writing saddle… if a little manic.
Once that’s out there in the big wide world, it’ll be time to decide whether I’m going to do the final polish on Ascension first and send it out to agents, or whether I’m going to do the second draft of Heart of Darkness.
Decisions… decisions…
Posted in Ascension, Heart of Darkness, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel, Love Immortal, paranormal romance, vampire romance
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Ascension, ears and busy schedules
Well, I’ve cajoled the muse into editing Ascension because I felt the writing wasn’t top quality, and then when I went back to it, it was actually far better than I’d remembered. I suppose that’s a good thing. I’m reading over it again now though, although Friday was a complete wash out because I ended up reading parts of Heart of Darkness instead. Not sure what I’m doing after I’ve finished this light edit/read of Ascension. I should probably do the polish on Her Dark Angel before I go away on holiday at the end of the month. I could also do with getting the second draft of Her Fallen Angel done too.
Of course, first I need to get this read through of Ascension done. It’s a miserable day here today and that’s not exactly making me want to do anything. I just want to sit around nursing my poor ear, eating chocolate, and watching anime, or perhaps playing a game.
I went to see my ENT consultant last week and I have yet another ear infection. We talked about what’s involved in an operation to fix the problems with my ear and while I’m more comfortable with the thought now, it still frightens me. I don’t really want to be knocked out but I guess it can’t be helped and it’s better to get the problem fixed now while I’m still (fairly) young and (fairly) healthy. The other downside to it is that I have to take 2 weeks off work. I doubt I’ll be up to much in those two weeks either, not even writing stuff, and that’ll hit my schedule pretty hard.
My schedule is all over the place. I’d love to get some things done and marked off the list but I can’t see it happening yet. It’s a shame really. I want some stuff out of the way with before I go away at the end of the month. I don’t want this bleak future full of editing. It doesn’t do the muse any good. He’s throwing a fit about it right now because he wants to write, and so do I, but we’ve written so much that now there’s a lot of editing between us and starting a new story!
When I get back from my holiday, I’ll be writing Her Warrior Angel. I need to plan it but that shouldn’t take too long as I have the rough idea for it already down, and the characters are already in my head. I just need the frame of the story, the skeleton as it were, and some character notes, and away we go!
At the moment, I’m focused on reading through Ascension and applying any necessary fixes before getting it sent off to a printer so I can get a paperback version of the complete second draft to take with me on holiday. I’m taking Forbidden Blood too. I’ll read them both on the plane or times when there’s nothing else to do and I’m a captive audience.
I’m also programming a Kindle HTML file maker for myself and my fellow authors at Alinar Publishing to use. It’s going well and I’ve done about 60% of it. I just need to finish another part of it and then test and tweak. I’ll get that done now hopefully and then get on with editing Ascension, and perhaps I’ll address my writing schedule issues.
Posted in Amazon Kindle, Ascension, forbidden blood, Heart of Darkness, Her Angel Series, Her Dark Angel, Her Fallen Angel, Her Warrior Angel, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, vampire romance, vampires
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