Thank you, random person, for the 5-star rating! My first rating on Amazon was 5 stars, which made my day; I had not expected one so soon since it hadn’t even been released for a week. Coincidently, I recently commented on a fellow blogger’s post (MichaelbChikondi, check out her vampire stories; they are really good.) about ratings and reviews and their importance to indie writers. They help keep us on the radar of Amazon’s rankings.
Emergence Ascended current rankings.
Thank you again, random person! Share in the joy of giving and make someones day! I mean mine, by picking up your copy of Emergence Ascended and leaving a rating and review.
My fingers actually hurt. I had started the weekend already desperately behind on my word count for NaNoWriMo. Saturday was filled with publishing Emergence Ascended (click to buy 😉 ) putting me farther behind. I planned on today for the big push to catch up. Today was the most I have ever written in a single session. My fingers hurt, and my eyes feel like they are bleeding. Feels so good.
5390 words logged in today. I am still behind, though, but not so far that it is impossible to catch up. I am feeling confident that I am actually going to complete NaNoWriMo.
The Kindle edition is now available! The paperback is pending review and should be live in the next 72 hours! I look forward to hearing what you think! Buy my book, rate it, and review it! Your ratings and reviews help me get noticed on Amazon rankings and build a following. Who knows, I might be your next favorite author!
Its been a long road but I can see the end! I have finished the final edits, and just received the cover art! Emergence Ascended will be published on Amazon Kindle And Paperback this weekend so stay tuned and watch for the links!
Check out and follow my Amazon Author page. While Emergence Ascended can stand on its own, you will miss out on a lot if you don’t read Emergence Collective.
Let me know what you think of the cover in the comments!
Just a quick update. Well, NaNoWriMo is half over. I have fallen behind over the last week. I am 5000 words behind, but I hope to make up for lost time this weekend. I still have high hopes and good spirits about completing this challenge. I was starting to feel frustrated that I was not keeping up, but I know that you can not fail at NaNoWriMo. It’s a personal challenge, so the 20199 words I have written in the last 2 weeks are a remarkable success, in my opinion, whether I complete it or not. I looked up how many people finished NaNoWriMo with 50000 words, and I was surprised that only about 10% to 20% actually finished (According to Wikipedia). So I feel pretty damn good that I know if I push hard enough, I too can do it. (I wish I can add blog post to my word count LOL but I play fair)
As excited as I am about having my recording studio ready, I will have to wait to record. At least its not because of technical issues that are the most frustrating for me. But because this month is packed, and I don’t have enough time or mental energy to do it all.
NaNoWriMo has taken a life of its own, dominating my time. I wrote a lot in Yellow Man this weekend, but I am still a couple thousand words behind. Currently sitting on seventeen thousand words. (Which is crazy to me.) It was just bad timing to be honest. I had just finished writing Emergence Ascendedand am still working on the final edits. So to try to record Emergence Collective is too much. After NaNowriMo is over, I can cool my jets a bit and dedicate myself to that project.
Well, it’s a little over a week into NaNoWrimo writing “Yellow man,” (I guess that name stuck.) I am still here, pluggin’ away when I can. A little here and a bit there, before work and breaks, I’ve managed to almost keep up. I am about two thousand words behind or a full day of writing. I plan on making it up this weekend, but my plans and I don’t always play well together. I hit nine thousand words yesterday; there is that. The story is progressing pretty good, I mentioned in earlier posts that I was going to approach this story in a different way, by outlining the story first. I made a character grid with the characters, traits and other behind the scenes personal information that I could draw upon when I write the characters into the story. Some things I will use and some I wont, but I feel that the characters are already fleshed out in my head. As far as the plot/storyline goes, I have been writing it in random order, random to the story progression (for reasons you will understand when you read it.) It feels a little weird and I have a lot of notes to keep me on track. All in all I feel good about the story so far.
Emergence Ascended is still in the final stages. I hope to have a book cover reveal in the next week or so and the final edit around the same time. My hope to have it published mid to late November (early December at the very latest) is still right on track so stay tuned for that!
If you like what you read here, be sure to give it a ‘Like’ and maybe comment, or just say hi! See what else I am up to by clicking on my linktree (all my links to social and other shenanigans are there)
If you are new and just stumbled on to my blog, you may wonder what my audible updates are… I started recording “Emergence Collective,” my first book, to release on Audible. I have received a lot of feedback about people wanting an audio version of my story; however, I am a bit too poor to afford a narrator, so like just about everything I do, I end up doing it myself. There is the fact that I have no idea what I am doing (as with most things I try). I learn as I go, grow from mistakes, and move on. What is interesting about writing, in general, is that I did not expect it to cost so much. Writing is free; I have a list of things I can not wait to get out of my head, but sharing it is a roadblock. Editors and book cover designs are expensive, something I did not anticipate when I started this journey. So I soldier on because, frankly, I can not, not write or be creative in some fashion. In the end I just hope people enjoy my stories as much as I enjoy thinking them up and writing them.
Back to the Audible thing. I have overcome some hurdles and am getting to the point where I feel that I might start producing something that will pass muster at the Audible People (ACX) and with me personally. The format is very important, and the audio quality as well; they seem to be pretty picky. As far as the narration is concerned, at least in my personal experience, not so much. I have returned audible books because I could not bear the narration. (so honestly not to worried about that, I will get better the more I do it of course.)
As far a NaNoWrimo goes, I had a busy weekend and did not keep up with my word count goal. Not all is lost, though I will try to make up some time on that. That being said, I had a successful weekend getting the recording studio (I am calling it a studio, but to be honest, that is an optimistic name) put together and getting a new episode recorded. I got some side projects in the works, like updating my etsy site. (Thanks Mom for helping with that).
Give my episode a listen, and let me know what you think. Be sure to like and comment!
A quick Audible update. I got my recording area set up for the most part. It’s a little ghetto, but it functions. I did a quick audio test, and it sounds a lot better. I still pick up a lot of household noise, but I like to record Sunday mornings when it’s still quiet, so I do not think that will be an issue. I plan on recording a chapter tomorrow just to break in my space. I also made a decision to re-record the first chapters, which had unbearable sound quality.
NanoWrimo : I am keeping up with the word count that I need to, to finish on time. I feel pretty good with how its going so far. The story is starting to flesh out.
Emergence Ascended is still under construction, last round of editing is going well, I suspect it will be ready in the next couple weeks, and the Art for the cover is coming along as well, ETA is undetermined, but I am hoping it will coincide with the editing and get published before December.
No, Mork, that is not Nanoo Nanoo. NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge to finish your novel of fifty thousand words (or more) in one month, held every November. Sounds crazy (especially when it took me two years to write sixty thousand). The idea is not to end November with a ready-to-publish manuscript but to get your crazy idea out of your head onto proverbial paper. Bang out two thousand words a day, and you can login a sixty thousand word novel that is ready to be dissected, rearranged, edited, edited, etc…
This year I joined officially. It was good timing since I finished Emergence Asended, I am ready to get to work on “Yellow Man” (I have got to come up with a better name). Oh… maybe “Slicker”? Anyway, I figured I’d give it a shot. I do not expect to do two thousand a day; that’s a great average, but I hope to keep close to it, more on the weekends and whatever I can pound out at lunch and breaks from work. If you are a writer and you want to participate, It’s not too late to start. It is only day two. Search my username JsHallett on NaNoWriMo.org and we can be writing buddies! Challenge and support each other, or join the forums and make new friends.
Are you gonna join? Let me know in the comments, or just say hi!
Hand-prints of Darkness 