School is in two days, and I still haven't gotten a full time writing gig? What gives?

Wonderful things are happening though, so I can't complain. Let me give you a quick recap.

SQUAD TREBLE IS GOING TO BE MADE INTO AUDIOBOOKS!
It was a battle there for awhile with the piracy department at ACX (I guess that should make me happy if someone ever really did try to steal my titles), but Limited Truth is in the process of being produced into an audiobook! Eventually all 4 will be done and I'm having covers made as we speak. It was really cool, over 20 people auditioned, but I ended up going with Miss Mikayla Iovine to portray Cassie. She made me feel like Cassie was sitting beside me telling her story and that was only in a three minute audition. I cannot wait to hear the whole thing! I'm hoping to post some updates during the process, so stay tuned!

LIMITED TRUTH IS FREE

A lot of Indie Authors have the first book in their series free and I had been on the fence about it for a while. I even had it at 99 cents for a while. Well, I finally set it free and I've had at least one purchase every day (With the exception of yesterday) for over a week. I'm hoping it will eventually lead to series sell through and life long fans!

If you'd like to check it out, click the link below, or go to the Squad Treble page on this site!
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​https://linktr.ee/KayBennson
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TIME FOR EDITS, PLOTTING, AND WRITING
I'll be jumping back into Eminence for edits probably tomorrow. I'm almost done plotting the entire Apocalypse Heart Saga, and had an idea on how to make my Angel/Demon story a little less confusing. I would say their priority is in the order that I just listed them. I'm hoping that maybe I'll get one more book Published and maybe one more written by the end of 2021? We'll see I guess.

Yours in writing,

​Kay

I'm really struggling today. I don't know if it's the weather, or the fact that I have just over a week until I'm back in the classroom everyday, or that my tiny town had a huge tragedy last night, but I am sad, wanting to lay in bed, and I feel like a scatter brain.

I should really be starting Eminence rewrites, but I've kind of been avoiding it like the plague, even before this funk that I've gotten myself in. I have a mild case of Shiny Object Syndrome. If you aren't familiar with the term, it's when a new idea comes and YOU MUST WORK ON IT. 

I usually get this way when I have one of my really cool dreams, but this is absolutely because I'm dragging my feet on getting back into Eminence because as you read (maybe, I have no idea if anyone reads this besides me) in the last post, I'm not sure if I want to invest a lot of time and effort into Sage and Company....but it needs to get done. I spent the weekend outlining my Sci Fi Series. I'm about three books in and I feel like it finally has enough direction to start. I also think that it might end up being 4 books instead of 6, but that's okay. Maybe 4 is my sweet spot? 

Okay, that's going to be the thing I work on next once Eminence is done so I guess that's not too much of a stretch, but then I was like "Maybe I'll re-outline my Angel/Demon Nano project" and I think I need to stop myself. I'm clearly procrastinating. 
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When I write I find that the rough draft is the fun part most of the time. You get to just write and get your ideas on paper. Now I need to connect the dots and get rid of plot holes and I'm sure once I'm back into it I'll be fine but, UGH! 

That being said, I'm finishing my Apocalypse Heart Sage Outline (Is it a Saga if it's only 4 books?) and then I'll head back to Rosementh. Mostly just wanted to vent.

I will leave you with this gratuitous Carey Price Gif because his face is Serotonin for my sad soul. Also...Character inspiration for Cole <3

Yours in writing,

​Kay

First things first, Eminence's rough draft is DONE!

Who had that on their 2021 bingo card? Certainly not me. That will be fun to revisit when it's time to make new goals at the end of the year. Currently going through and making notes before I start the next round of edits. There are 17 days until I'm back at school with kids and 10 until I start having teacher meetings. I've already cried about it...so that's how that's going.

I'm writing today not really about Eminence, but actually about Enshrine. I had a whole post about it pretty much done yesterday and then I accidentally closed the window and lost it. So here we go for round 2.

It's been a long time since I wrote Enshrine, and even though I read it somewhat recently (I think during lockdown), I was finding myself forgetting what people looked like, or details that I didn't want to get wrong. So once I wrote the last words of Eminence I read Enshrine again and took notes and...well...I have some mixed feelings.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of myself. I wrote a book! If it wasn't for this one, I probably wouldn't have anything else published or be where I am today.  That being said, it's obvious that this was my debut. It's WAY too long, I could have condensed several scenes and some of the dancing bits are confusing if you weren't an Irish dancer.

I think the bigger issue for me is something a bit more delicate. Way back when I was originally working on this, I was intending on it being a bit more George R. R. Martin and meant for adults. For example, the night that Dayton takes Sage to his tent and chains her up...well he was originally intended to do a lot more. A big subplot of the book was going to be Sage coming to the terms that no one in her village might want her if she ever got back because she was no longer pure. Well, then my students at the time caught wind that I was writing a book and wanted me to read it to them and I changed ALOT. Even when I read things aloud I watered it down because I did not want to have a class discussion on Rape or why Sage might be drinking a tea that acted as birth control. (I changed it to Chamomile for anxiety)

Unfortunately, I feel like changing it for their young ears kind of diluted the whole thing. Again, I thank God every day that these kids motivated me to finish it and send it to agents and publishers, but Dayton was literally called the Pillager King. I'm not glorifying non consensual sex, but I feel like the whole, "she would be shamed for leaving the king, they wouldn't want to deal with the drama" angle I went with was confusing. 

I think the most frustrating thing was that while reading it, I feel like it was still implied, but not as much as I would like. If Dayton was this virtuous guy who wanted to wait until his wedding night, wouldn't he believe in a God? I'm going off on a tangent here, but you get what I'm going for here. Hopefully.

So here's where potential decisions come in. I didn't really reformat this one when I got the rights back other than slap a new copyright date on it.  There are a few typos and formatting things I definitely plan on doing. But I guess what I'm dealing with here is whether or not I should rewrite Enshrine.

Plot wise, she would stay the same with the exception of a few filler things that I think could be cut down. It's really to clean up those dance scenes that I think take everyone out of the story except for a handful of people and you know...have a terrible yet not ridiculous reason that Elder Ingraham doesn't want Sage to mar his family name.

On the other hand, an author I really admire told me that if you rewrite your books every 4-5 years you'd never have anything new in your career and you'd be constantly fixing things. She asked if Enshrine is what I want to base my career around and initially I said no, but...now I'm not so sure.

I had always hoped that this world would be huge. Sage would have her turn, but I had a book from Jonty's point of view, I wanted Martin and Nev to have a prequel. I had a really cool Greatest Showman meets Moulin Rogue idea for Naomi, one of Sage's sisters and it does seem like I have a following that LOVES fantasy romance and has been waiting for Eminence for years. Granted most of them are people I know, but that's a starting point right?

I want to write my Dystopian Worlds and Space Operas, but I feel like I might need to sit back and rethink my publishing plan. When I took Publish and Thrive, Sarra said to find your niche or it will take a while to get traction which is why I took Enshrine down...She had multiple successful series in different genres...AHHH I don't know what to do.

Since this is has become a novella and I'm shouting into the void...I think I'm going to leave it here. I think I'll re-watch some Publish and Thrive videos and keep making notes on Eminence.

Yours in Writing,

Kay

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