This is a new thing that I’m going to try and do at least most weeks. Some will keep you up  to date on where I’m at and similar. Others will talk about my writing process and stories I’m working on or developing.

So let’s do this.

Where am I at?

Let’s start with the really good news. I have a new permanent job starting tomorrow. I’m nervous as heck but hopefully it will go well. I hope that being free of the constant anxiety of job hunting will make it easier for me to write more. You would think that not working would give you more writing time but my head has been in a very bad place this last couple of months which has interfered.

So let’s go through the stories and see where we’re at:

The Dragon Wars Saga

We’re coming towards the end of Arc Four and some things have become apparent to me.

Firstly, I am not entirely happy with Arc Four. It’s too busy and the plot is not as coherent as in previous arcs. Unlike the previous arcs it’s going to need more than cosmetic editing. I’ll try to get the ebook of Arc Three out ASAP but don’t expect the Arc Four ebook any time soon as I am going to rewrite it and possibly split it in two. I will give regular updates on where we’re at in these posts. So stay tuned.

Secondly, I need to figure out how I’m handling the Caredale Stories as we’re now at the point in the world timeline where they start. The relationship  between these stories and Dragon Wars is similar to that between, for example, The Flash and Arrow. That is they take place in the same universe and some characters even crossover (Caredale being where Sophie Ashbourne and Darylyan both live it’s fair to say they are major characters). On the upside Caredale does pretty much stand alone as well so new readers won’t have to wade through DW if they don’t want to (I did initially envision Arc 5 and Caredale 1 being more linked than they are which is one of the reasons DW 4 needs more editing). I don’t know if I should:

1. Take Dragon Wars down to one installment a week and post Caredale book one on the other day (say DW on Monday and Caredale on Friday).
2. Post Caredale on a separate day (say Saturday) and keep DW as two days a week.
3. Pause DW while I sort out and repost Arc Four and post Caredale book 1 on Monday and Fridays for the foreseeable future instead. I’m leaning towards this as I’m feeling a bit blocked on Arc 5 at the moment. Part of me feels bad about this. Part of me is all “it’s been six years, you’re allowed to take a break”.

If you, as my readers, have any input on this I’d be grateful. I won’t necessarily do what most people prefer as I have to sort out what’s best for me and my writing. I can promise that it will be a large factor in my considerations.

Haventon

Conversely Haventon 2 is going well. I know where I am and what the end is. There are a couple of plot points I really need pin down to sort out how we get between here and the end but it’s not going badly. I am rewriting the earlier chapters and will repost fairly soon but I’m also on track to get chapter 14 out this week. It’s half done and I intend to finish it and send it to Torvawk to beta tonight or tomorrow. This will mean that the first draft is half written. Yay!

And don’t forget the paperback of Book One: Haventon Born is now available and on offer at £7.99 until 8th March 2016.

Whisper

I’m sure you’ve noticed Whisper’s unscheduled hiatus. Sorry about that. With the stress something had to give and Whisper was it. The latest installment is about a quarter done and I’ll try to get it done for next week.

On the upside Whisper has received a great review. Which is definitely encouraging.

Shattered

Shattered is a  more traditional fantasy story (secondary world, magic, gods, and monsters) that is the next of my creations that I’d like to share you all. You can read the first draft of the first chapter here.

Unfortunately as things currently stand unless my Patreon gets more love it won’t be seen on the site in the foreseeable future. Shattered will post monthly to Patreon (for Patrons only) once total pledges hit $50/month and on the site once we reach $100/month. We’re currently at  $17.96/month so that’s a way off. I don’t like this. I feel like I’m holding it hostage.

There is another possibility. I could make Shattered available now as a monthly serial on Gumroad. This would mean that for 99 cents a month you would get a digital file (probably pdf) containing at least 10000 words of the story until it was finished (at which point the money would stop being taken). And to keep my promise to never 100% paywall any of my serials I would still eventually post it on the site but only once it had concluded on Gumroad. The free release would probably be simultaneous with the complete ebook release with a note at the end of each installment that you can read ahead by buying the ebook. I would do this once the book was finished posting via Gumroad  even if nobody subscribed.

Some things jump out at me about  this model:

1. You’d be paying for early rather than exclusive access. Likely at least 7 or 8 months early (depending on final length) if you are with me from the start. To incentivize this I would also give access to the ebook only bonus content I create for it.
2. It’s going to work out more expensive to subscribe than the final ebook but that’s standard (think about the price of collecting a comic as single issues versus multiple issue collections). To incentivize this all subscribers would get a copy of the ebook at the end.
3. How would we handle comments?  Thoughts – either a forum or simply a post on the site for readers to comment and review (who knows it might draw in new subscribers).

If I do try this then I will also simultaneously make the content available for Patreon Patrons so they don’t have to pay twice and will rejig the Patreon targets accordingly. All Patrons will also get the incentives mentioned above

Given that there is no cost to me in this model I am perfectly willing to try it  out if even a few people express an interest.

Audiobooks:

Do people want them? I’d like to do one for Haventon Born and I’m thinking that much like Shattered it would make a good test for Gumtree subscriptions but given that audiobooks do have a setup cost (and not an insubstantial one) due to VA costs I wouldn’t want to risk this without either running a crowdfunding campaign or at least knowing I could get enough subscriptions to cover my behind.

Facebook and Twitter

I do have social media accounts for my writing and I’m trying to use them more. So why not like the facebook page or follow the Twitter?

That’s it for now. If you have any comments I’d love to hear them.

Hiya, readers,

I’ve finally approved the paperback version of Haventon Born. It’s currently only available through Lulu’s site, but I will vouch for them. I have purchased many books from them without problem.

The normal price will be £9.99 but until 8th March you can get it for the introductory price of £7.99. That’s a massive 20% discount. (Obviously you also have to pay postage).

Want a signed version? Drop me a line and we’ll arrange something. It will cost a little more as there will be two sets of postage to cover.

Been meaning to get the ebook? Here’s links to all the places you can get that.

PDF Version here  (If you’re not sure here’s advice on how to read a PDF)

EPub Version here (need an EPUB Reader try FBReader )

Kindle (click on your local Amazon site): US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India. Don’t have a Kindle? You don’t need to buy one, there are free reading apps for Apple, Android and Windows available. There should be a link on your local Amazon Kindle store that you can use to get it. I generally read Kindle books on my android tablet).

Thanks for reading,

Becka

Hi Readers,

As the title says this is a begging post. Sorry about that but it’s got to be done.

As you may know I was made redundant in June 2014 and ever since I’ve been bouncing from temporary job to temporary for the eighteen month since. This is exhausting and stressful in a way that a stable job never was and it’s really cutting into my writing time. This is why Dragon Wars installments are so much shorter now and why Damkina and Haventon are fortnightly not weekly.

To make matters worse my most recent temporary job just ended right before Christmas and my savings are virtually gone. I am looking for work, I have great experience, an excellent CV and have some interviews lined up but there’s no guarantees and this is bloody scary.

There has never been a better time for my writing to start to paying for itself.

So if you want to pledge a few pennies to my Patreon I’ve updated the goals as follows (Note these are total monthly pledges not per person pledges):

$25/month: This target will pay for the website costs  – kind of important if I am to keep posting. Currently The Haventon Chronicles Book 2 and The Whisper of Damkina are serializing on Wednesdays on alternate weeks. Once we reach $25/month total subscriptions and the first month has gone in I will start posting both of them weekly again.

$50/month: Now we’re covering my internet and phone costs as well. Once we reach this level of  support I will post a chapter of Shattered – my traditional fantasy WIP on Patreon once a month for Patrons only.

$100/month: While far from any livable target this is the level where my writing is paying for itself. This will cover not only the website costs but also the costs of preparing my books for publication. At this point I will start up Shattered installments to once a fortnight on Patreon and begin publishing it monthly on the website.

$250/month:  This is the point at which you begin to impact my day to expenses while far from enough live on this amount of money would allow me to start saving more money for emergencies. Patrons will now get Shattered weekly and it will be released fortnightly on the website.

—

Now if you don’t want to make a monthly pledge but would like to send me a one off tip as a Christmas gift I do I have paypal (You can see the link in the top corner) and am offering a few perks to encourage you.

• All people who donate will receive a mention on the update page and a thank you email.
• If you tip £3 or more you can also have your choice of one my ebooks emailed to you.
• If you tip £10 or more you will get a thank you card in the post from me.
• If you’re really generous and tip £25 or more I will send you a signed paperback edition of one of my books with enclosed thank you card.

—

Or of course you can buy my books from Amazon and other places.  Links for Haventon. Links for Dragon Wars.

—

If you can’t afford monetary support that’s fine. I really understand being short of money.

• Tell your friends how much you love my work ( and tell your enemies you hate it so they’ll read it to spite you).
• Review my work in the venue of your choice.
• Offer your services – Trix and Torvawk really help by doing beta reading and Tony who does my ebook formatting saves me a packet.
• Just keep reading. Readers make me happy. Comment if you want.

Whatever you can do to help I love all my readers. Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Okay peeps,

I’m about to send the manuscript of Haventon Book 1 off to the ebook formatter and I’m looking to have it up and ready to buy before Halloween. Hopefully by the 25th October.

So I need to ask you a couple of questions. I’m doing them as polls as I seem to get a better level of response that way.

Thanks in advance.

So here it is as promised. The Cover reveal for The Haventon Chronicles Book One: Haventon Born. Cover Art by Roman Hodek.

What do you think?

Hello loyal readers,

Just an update on where I’m at and what’s happening. Mostly good news and a bit of begging.

Whisper and Haventon returning!

I’ve spent the last few weeks carefully building up Buffer on both Haventon and Whisper an now have a fair bit of each, so they will be returning as of Wednesday 7th October. So as not to overreach myself both will be updating fortnightly on Wednesday on alternating weeks starting with Haventon.

Patreon and Paypal

Nothing critical or dire but I am between jobs again so now would be a very good time to it the paypal button if you like my stuff. Or if you’d like to back me more regularly consider backing my Patreon.

Haventon Born:

Only one pre-reader needs to get Havnton book 1 back to me and I can start prepping for release. The cover is already visible to Patreon backers and I will do a public reveal here next week.

I’m hoping to get t out for the end of October (Vampires, werewolves, halloween – excellent) and I’d love to ask you to help with marketing of it. If you read book one either on here or as a pre-reader and could make a one line review suitable for use in a book trailer I’d be really grateful. If you want to leave it in the comments here, please.

So that’s where things stand at the moment.

Hi Peeps,

I’m know several of you are wondering when Haventon Book 2 Lord of the Wolves will start posting. I can now answer that question.

The answer is Tomorrow (5th February 2015).

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that posting will be sporadic. I will post each chapter on the Thursday after it is finished but I cannot guarantee that it will be weekly or even fortnightly – all I can say is that I’ll attempt to get up at least one chapter a month, hopefully more, and these will be full not part chapters. So you’ll have to keep an eye out for new posts.

—

In other news – just in case you missed it –  I currently have $33/month worth of pledges on my Patreon. If we reach $50/month I’ll start posting Shattered (a tradtional fantasy of which I have 20 chapters written) once a fortnight.  To wet your appetite you can read Chapter One here.  If you want to read it please consider becoming a Patron. Thanks!

First | Previous | Chapter Index | Next

The news turned out to be reporting only the barest of facts about the meeting but the tone was mostly positive. After they’d watched it, Sonia gave a relieved sigh and nodded to herself.

“Well, he hasn’t sold us down the river yet, at least,” she said. “I’ll check again later. Let’s go and see how Kayleigh and Robert are doing while you father is cooking dinner.” Read the rest of this entry »

… And as usual I will be taking part as I have every year since 2005 (and I’ve won every year except last year and even then I wrote over 40k words in a month). This year I want to do something different. I want to give you – my readers – the chance to read my NaNoWriMo tale as I write (yes, we’re talking daily or near daily posts). Before we get to that bit let’s talk about the story itself.

I’m going to be writing a Superhero story. It doesn’t have a title yet but here’s the blurb:

Superpowers and superheroes aren’t real. They belong in fiction not reality. Everyone knows that. Sienna Munroe certainly knows it.

Or at least she thinks she does until the day an explosion shakes her home town and a strange mist engulfs it. While trying to get an injured friend help in the aftermath Sienna and her friends are attacked by a man and Sienna throws him backwards and knocks him out with just her mind.

So here’s the thing. As you all know I’m on a publicity drive right now (hence the requests for votes on TWF etc at the end of every post at the moment).

I’m considering an author reading on Google Hangouts, Skype or similar (likely Hangouts). After the reading the guests could ask questions and suchlike. All Patrons and recent donators would be invited to join and (presuming we’re using Hangouts) it’ll stream live to Youtube for non-invitees to watch (otherwise it’ll be uploaded later). I’m guessing the whole thing will last about an hour.

So please answer the following in comments if you wish:

1. Would you be interested in this?

2. If you are and you’re not a patron how much would you be willing to drop in the hat to get access to the hangout rather than just watching on Youtube.

3. If you are interested would you like it to be a monthly event?

Yes this is similar to the $25/month perk on my Patreon but I’m thinking that might be better as an all Patrons thing so I’m also looking coming up with a better idea for the $25 dollar/month perk. Something like a side story written just for you at the rate of 500 words/month? Thoughts?

—

Another related – but slightly more complicated idea – would anyone be interested in hosting me for a virtual author appearance?

This would involve no money but instead you’d invite friends who you think might be interested in my book around to your place and we’d link up via Hangouts or Skype again. The structure would be similar – reading and questions and I’d send you some leaflets with links the website and places the books can be bought. There’s some details of the idea I need to work out yet but would anyone be willing?

—

I’m also crowdsourcing publicity ideas. Which is a posh way of saying do you have any ideas on how to spread the word?

Thanks again for being readers!

Becka