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WIPMarathon Report #4

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last report wordcount + chapter count/scene count: 1.51,128 words and 21 1/2 chapters (NOBODY’S GODDESS/THE NEVER VEIL 2)

2. 50,250 words and chapter count no longer relevant because I wrote in a crazy, skip-to-scenes-I-want-to-write-most way. (NaNoWriMo project–not touched since November!)

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 1. 67,566 words and 28 chapters (NOBODY’S GODDESS 2)–first draft done, yay!

2. 53,861 words and chapters still not quite relevant because I haven’t fixed it (NaNoWriMo project)

WIP Issues This Month: I started this month off with a bang–I was so productive and finished the NG2 draft by May 8th! That made me really happy and I was looking forward to tackling my next goal (after putting NG2 aside for a time to get some distance from it), finishing the NaNoWriMo project that had been on hiatus since November. I had to re-read it in its entirety before I could begin, really, because I’d been working on another world. I did that over about a week and a half and was able to make some edits as I went along. And it felt nice at first. I was starting to think, “Why did I burn out on this? It really isn’t that bad! In fact, it’s kind of good for being out of my comfort zone!” Then after re-reading what I had, I tackled trying to finish the draft and… totally hit a wall. ;-;

Meanwhile, at the same time, I got really busy with other things, and even thought I DO have time to write every day recently, I’m not making much progress at all, which depresses me. Every time I sit to write, it just isn’t flowing. So gone are my dreams of finishing the first draft of the NaNoWriMo by the end of May. (It SHOULD have been possible–I seriously didn’t need more than 5000-10,000 words to finish!) Now I’m wondering if I have to put that aside AGAIN to start NG2 edits, considering that’s due to the publisher August 1st and I need to give my betas time to read and then edit again after they read. *sigh* I’m not in a very confident author mood right now, but I’m making a little progress.

Four things I learned this month in writing:  1. I’ll always be going through good and bad writing phases. (So I hope I get out of this funk soon.)

2. It’s entirely possible to want to change some relatively small but still important things in book 1 of a series AFTER you already turned in the edits because of what came out while writing book 2. (Hope I get a chance to do so during the next round of edits!) Editing doesn’t end… 0_o

3. Beating myself up over not accomplishing as much as I’d like to is a bad idea (but I knew that and do it anyway).

4. My goals aren’t always realistic. Since I assume I’ll ALWAYS be able to write a decent amount each day when that’s clearly not the case.

What distracted me this month while writing: I’ve been trying to clean my ENTIRE house in the hopes of moving this year. (Don’t know when or where yet, just downsizing.) I’ve been tackling the big move clean up for seriously 10 years, but not every day like I have for the past week and a half. And there’s always more to be done, and I’ve been prepping myself to part with some things I didn’t originally want to get rid of, so there’s more cleaning to do. I’m also trying to ebay a lot of the stuff I’m parting with, and that’s a huge hassle, but my paying work has been light this month (which is both good and bad ;-;) so I have to do something to try to offset the decrease in income. Unfortunately, most auctions are almost too much of a pain to justify what little I earn off of something!

I’m still querying FALL FAR FROM THE TREE when I find the time (and I entered TheWVoice early on in the month but didn’t move on to the next round)–but between EVERYTHING ELSE, I’m not sending out as many queries as I’d like! So far, I’m pretty happy with the responses–I’m averaging a 12.3% request rate, which is more than NOBODY’S GODDESS got originally (and that one got me an agent!). 🙂 No offers, obviously. (I’d let you all know!)

Goal for next month: I need to do my first edits on NG2 and get it off to my beta(s). I really wanted to finish the first draft of my NaNoWriMo and get that off to my beta(s), too, but I can’t give them both at once! I’m having a hard time deciding which to do first because I’d hoped to have the NaNoWriMo draft done by now but that’s obviously not happening. *sigh* Maybe I need to go back to NG2, brain shift though it may be, to jumpstart my writing muse.

Posted in Writing

The Writer’s Voice Entry: Fall Far From the Tree

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Dear The Writer’s Voice Judges:

Terror. Callousness. Denial. Rebellion. How the four teenage children of leaders in the duchy and the neighboring empire of Hanaobi choose to adapt to their nefarious parents’ whims is a matter of survival.

Seventeen-year-old Rohesia, daughter of the duke, spends her days hunting “outsiders” with different faces, fugitives who’ve snuck onto her father’s island duchy. That she lives when even children who resemble her are subject to death hardens her heart to tackle the task.

Fastello is the sixteen-year-old son of the “king” of the raiders who steal from the rich and share with the poor. But as of late, few aristocrats have escaped to tell the tale of the forest-dwelling thieves, and Fastello questions what his peoples’ increasingly wicked methods of survival have cost them.

At the tower beyond the forests, sixteen-year-old Cateline, favorite pupil of her religion’s leader, worships the goddess of the night. An orphan raised by a convent of mothers, Cateline can think of no higher aim in life than to serve her religion, even if it means turning a blind eye to the suffering of other orphans under the mothers’ care.

Across the waters in Hanaobi, seventeen-year-old Kojiro, new heir to the empire, must figure out not only how to rule, but also how to avenge his people against the “barbarians” who live in the duchy, all while terrified the empress, his own mother, might rather see him die than succeed.

A YA version of Game of Thrones meets Marvel Comics’ Runaways, Fall Far From the Tree is a character-driven YA fantasy complete at 75,000 words. A self-contained novel, it leaves room for one sequel and switches between the points of view of four characters, each the progeny of malevolent parents.

I am the author of Nobody’s Goddess (formerly known as The Veiled Man’s Goddess trilogy), the first in a YA fantasy romance series that debuts in 2015 with Month9Books. I am also a freelance writer with over eight years of experience and an honors degree in English, and I was first published in a national scholarly journal, The Concord Review, while in high school.

Thank you for your consideration. Below are the first 250 words.

 

Sincerely,

Amy McNulty

 

I’d lived only five winters the first time I saw an infant drowned.

I felt Father’s hand on my shoulder as the horse jostled us slightly, shaking her head and whipping the tips of her silky black mane across my eyes. Father noticed the instinct that took over, the mere moment my eyelids closed despite how hard I’d fought to keep them open. “Watch, Rohesia. Burn the moment into your mind.”

The shrieking woman held aloft by two soldiers kicked her legs, sending her skirt upward. I noticed the mud that collected along the hem, the strands of straw-colored hair that escaped her kerchief and swung wildly across her mouth. The hair blew with each shriek like curtains in the breeze, the skirt a gale that tore through a field of wheat, the woman the only source of movement beyond the scuffing hooves of the horses beside me.

“The child, Rohesia. Not the mother.”

The soldier by the river tossed the tattered cloth that had wrapped the baby to the ground and held the crying infant as far out in front of him as his stocky arms would allow. One gauntlet supported the baby’s head and neck, the other gripped the child’s body loosely, and I saw one impossibly small leg kick upward vainly.

The horse tossed her mane again, whipping the black hair across my eyes, but I leaned sideways and turned my head away so I wouldn’t close them.

Posted in Writing

WIPMarathon Report #3

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last report wordcount + chapter count/scene count: 47,969 words and 20 chapters

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 51,128 words and 21 1/2 chapters

WIP Issues This Month: This looks terrible, like I hardly did anything at all this month, right? (And last month I was beating myself up for making MORE progress.) But I’m actually in a good place, writing-wise. Aside from one unfortunate week I couldn’t manage to do any fiction work, I was REALLY busy with my first post-sale revisions for NOBODY’S GODDESS. I deleted and added a few thousand words to that manuscript, shifted things around and read the entire thing once and am working on reading it again and incorporating more changes. My deadline is April 30th and I’m well on track. So even though I didn’t get much work done on THE NEVER VEIL #2, I at least got past the 50,000 word milestone!

Four things I learned this month in writing:  1. You can never “forget” to write.

2. Editing never really ends. (Well, I hear it does when the book is in print, but you know…)

3. Fantasizing about fiction writing as a full-time job doesn’t help any, ha.

4. I can juggle many, many fiction projects at once.

What distracted me this month while writing: Being busy at work and life, as usual. It was my birthday, and that was fun. I went to C2E2 in Chicago yesterday! And on April 11th, I co-hosted a release party for THE SOUL HEALER, which was super fun. (I want to do one next year for mine!)

I haven’t had as much time to devote to it this month, but I’ve also been busy… querying for an agent. Since I’m planning to try to enter some Pitch Contests soon and it’s been a bit, I think I can say that publicly this time! (This was what was bumming me out last month.) I’ll miss my last agent and appreciate everything he did for me, but we had to part ways for reasons beyond my control.

Goal for next month: Since I’ll be passing the baton on NOBODY’S GODDESS edits to my editor, I can get back to focusing on trying to finish the first draft of THE NEVER VEIL #2! I hope I do! I mean, I haven’t gotten as many words done per month as I’d like, but I think I’m close. Then I plan to set it aside before I edit (because I think it’ll need a bit of work) and work on finishing the draft of my NaNoWriMo project I burnt out on. I’ve been feeling the need to go back and finish that.

Last 200 words: Can’t because it’s a sequel.

Posted in News

The Soul Healer Release Day! (And There Are So Many E-books to Win!)

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Those of you who have already read The Sight Seer and An Autumn Dream, books 1 and 1.5 in The Silver Moon Saga already probably know this, but The Silver Moon Saga is one of my favorite YA series of the past few years. But honestly, you guys might figure I’m biased, since my beta reader extraordinaire/best friend Melissa Giorgio wrote them, and I got to read them before anyone else.

Today is the day Silver Moon fans have been waiting for: Book 2 in the series, The Soul Healer, releases in Kindle e-book! (Paperbacks will follow shortly.)

Buy it now!

 

soulhealercover

It’s been two months since Gabi Harkins first learned of demons and the mysterious hunters who battle them. After discovering a few unbelievable surprises about herself, she simply wants to settle into a normal routine that involves dating her boyfriend Rafe Fitzgerald, hanging out with her friends, and eating lots of dessert. But when her peaceful life is destroyed by the ultimate of betrayals, Gabi must rely on her wits—and a few new crazy friends—to survive her hardest challenges yet.

The sequel to The Sight Seer combines action, romance, and a healthy dose of humor as Gabi struggles to learn the truth about the secrets that surround her life.

To celebrate, Melissa and I are hosting a two-hour party tonight on Facebook from 6 pm to 8 pm US Eastern. Everyone is welcome to come, even if you can only drop by for a little bit. We’ll be giving away donated e-books from a number of lovely authors throughout the evening. I’m also donating a complete The Silver Moon Saga e-book set (well, the two books and one novella out so far!) myself. If you already have books 1 and/or 1.5, I’d be happy to send those to your friend’s Kindle while you just get the books you need if you like. We can create more fans together!

contestprizes

Click here to join the Facebook party!

Posted in Writing

WIPMarathon Report #2

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last report wordcount + chapter count/scene count: 40,127 words and 16 and a bit more chapters

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 47,969 words and 20 chapters

WIP Issues This Month: I won’t lie–my progress over the past four weeks has been abysmal. I mean, any bit of progress is better than nothing, right? But I ought to have been much further along than this. Especially considering I had one really, really good day and wrote like half of what I did the whole month on that day. I’m not stuck–I have an outline and I’m trying to just finish a draft without thinking about the little problems with the story starting to nag at me (too much)–but writing has been a struggle lately. On the plus side, I’ve reached the point in the synopsis I’d been most looking forward to write, so maybe that’ll spur me forward.

Four things I learned this month in writing:  1. Beating myself up over a small word count is counter-productive. (But I keep doing it anyway.)

2. I don’t always write first drafts quickly! (Well, I mean, I have some unfinished WIPs, but before this, the two manuscripts I’ve finished were drafted in under a couple of months.)

3. Years later (and with editors’ help) after drafting, I can still think of ways to improve my manuscripts. ^^

4. I have to keep going. I have to keep going….

What distracted me this month while writing: I got sick about halfway through the month–I was on antibiotics, but I was hardly so sick I wouldn’t be able write for days on end, but that’s what happened anyway. Blame it on my mood, I guess. I got some sad news on my writing-career front about the same time that I had to deal with and led to another task that took up a bit of my time this month, but I’m trying not to disclose too much.

Goal for next month: I actually have to put the WIP (Never Veil Series 2) aside! Well, I’ll keep working on it here and there as much as I can, but it’s second priority since I’m starting the first post-book-sale edits for Nobody’s Goddess (Never Veil Series 1, The Veiled Man’s Goddess’ new title) and they’re due at the end of the month. So my goal is to finish this round of edits and write more of the WIP, but I won’t be surprised if my word count hasn’t gone up much in a month’s time!

Last 200 words: Can’t because it’s a sequel.

Posted in News

The Veiled Man’s Goddess New Title Reveal

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’d be the first to admit that titles aren’t my strong suit. Or at least I never stumble upon the title for a project and think wholeheartedly “This is the perfect title!” like some writers do. (See The Sight Seer and the whole Silver Moon Saga for one such example.) I didn’t come up with a title for my Month9Books debut until after I wrote and edited the first draft. I think I was going for something akin to The French Lieutenant’s Woman (in that the woman/”goddess” is supposed to be focus, but you’re still also drawing attention to the man to whom she “belongs” in a way). And I liked the idea of a veiled man (he features prominently in the book) since when you think of veiled people, you usually think of veiled women, right?

Still, I knew something was off about it. It worked in a way, but it didn’t fit with YA titles I’ve seen before. Who’s this man (not even a “boy”) and what’s he doing in my YA book? And then there’s the slightly erotic overtones of a man + his goddess that I didn’t mean to convey. There’s plenty of romantic tension (and just plain tension) between the two, but they never stray into erotic territory in the draft.

When my agent took on the book, he warned the title would probably need to be changed if it sold, and he was right. So after quite a while of back and forth, with Jason and Month9Books publisher/editor Georgia McBride and I all tossing out many (many!) solid, lovely ideas that still didn’t quite fit, and even after Georgia asked her colleagues for feedback on a few of our top ideas, we decided to step back and re-think. Then Georgia came back with a suggestion from my new editor Lindsay Leggett from a line in my novel and it clicked. Georgia’s suggestion for the series title after that just fell into place. (And yes, I still have to come up with titles for books 2 and 3–I have titles, but they probably won’t stick, either–but that’s for another day!)

So what sold as The Veiled Man’s Goddess will now be known as:

Nobody’s Goddess

Book 1 in The Never Veil Series

What do you think? It makes a lot of sense (well, once you’ve read the book! She’s both “the veiled man’s” and “nobody’s” goddess in a way), and I think it’s better suited to YA. I got stuck because I was determined to fit “veil” in there somewhere (it’s such a lovely word), but we got it in the series name, so I’m happy!

And I just got my first round of edits! I’m excited about the suggestions and looking forward to shaping Nobody’s Goddess into the book I hope you all eventually read.

Posted in Writing

WIPMarathon Report #1

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last report wordcount + chapter count/scene count: 27,301 words and ten and a half chapters

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 40,127 words and 16 and a bit more chapters (ha, the last 2300 words were just last night, too, so… If I’d had more writing sessions like that one this month, I’d be further along!)

WIP Issues This Month: I never stalled entirely, but the scenes I’ve been working on this month have been less exciting to me than some of the stuff near the beginning or what’s to come. I’ve struggled to find both the time and the brain power to work. (When I’m too stressed or tired from work writing, it’s hard to get my brain into the fiction writing groove, even if I find the time!) I spent like a week on one scene writing 100 words at a time wondering what on earth was going on (characters were keeping secrets from my main character–and me!) until I finally cracked it.

Four things I learned this month in writing:  1. Even if it’s only small progress, progress is still progress. I may have wanted to get more words done this month, but somehow I at least managed to get this much done despite feeling overwhelmed.

2. Keep pushing through a scene and you’ll eventually crack it somehow.

3. Sometimes you have to write even if you don’t feel like you can because even 100 words a day is better than nothing. Even 100 words a week is better than nothing.

4. It’s not worth stressing myself out on days I can’t get many words done; it just makes me feel unaccomplished.

What distracted me this month while writing: Work, bitter cold temperatures (good for staying inside and writing a lot, though!), snow shoveling, reading, gaming, and everyday life. I’m also strangely into looking up True Detective theories.

Goal for next month: Keep going with this WIP! I want to finish as much more as possible. I need a first draft done within the next few months. I feel like I’m more than halfway there, though. Which potentially means there will be too few words this first draft, but we’ll see. I’m not worried about that yet–just getting through the plot.

Last 200 words: Can’t because it’s a sequel.

Posted in News

The Soul Healer by Melissa Giorgio Cover Reveal

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Last month, I blogged about the news that book 2 in my bestie/beta reader Melissa Giorgio‘s Silver Moon Saga is due out April 11th. Today, we have the gorgeous cover reveal!

soulhealercover

It’s been two months since Gabi Harkins first learned of demons and the mysterious hunters who battle them. After discovering a few unbelievable surprises about herself, she simply wants to settle into a normal routine that involves dating her boyfriend Rafe Fitzgerald, hanging out with her friends, and eating lots of dessert. But when her peaceful life is destroyed by the ultimate of betrayals, Gabi must rely on her wits—and a few new crazy friends—to survive her hardest challenges yet.

The sequel to The Sight Seer combines action, romance, and a healthy dose of humor as Gabi struggles to learn the truth about the secrets that surround her life.

Add The Soul Healer to your Goodreads to-read list now!

melissabiopic

Melissa Giorgio is a native New Yorker who graduated from Queens College with a degree in English. She’s always dreamed of being a writer and has been creating stories (mostly in her head) since she was a little girl. Also an avid reader, Melissa loves to devour thick YA novels. When not reading or writing, she enjoys watching animated films, listening to music by her favorite Japanese boy band, or exploring Manhattan.

 

Isn’t the cover so lovely? The image perfectly brings the book to life, and I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

Posted in News

New Blog Header

Posted on by Amy McNulty

My gorgeous new blog header image care of a social media pack from Morgan Media! She designs some of the lovely Month9Books and Swoon Romance covers.

Coincidentally, a purple glow, magic and woods play important roles in THE VEILED MAN’S GODDESS.

(I also have new matching images for Twitter, Facebook and Google+.)

Posted in Writing

WIPMarathon Check-In #9 (5)

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I can’t believe it’s over already! (True, I only participated in half of it, but it still flew by!) I’ll be sure to check back in with the monthly updates.

Last Check-in Wordcount + ChapterCount (+ scene count if you’re revising): 22,821 words and eight and a half chapters

Current WC + CC (or SC): 27,301 words and ten and a half chapters

WIP Issues this week: Nothing too much, just finding the time to write, as usual. And I went back to switching tenses. I thought I was over that. I think my next ms will have to be in present again since I clearly want to write that way. (Watch me keep writing in past when I work on that one, though.)

What I learned this week in writing: I’m still “off synopsis,” but I’m getting closer to getting back on track. I also learned you can really miss writing for one character who hasn’t appeared in a while. (I want to get further into the story so that character can come back already!)

What distracted me this week while writing: Mostly work, but early in the week I actually had free time I could have used to write, but I had a bad head cold and couldn’t focus, d’oh. I’m better now, though.

Last 200 words: Can’t because it’s the sequel to my book releasing next year

Plans After WIPMarathon: I’m going to keep working on this sequel. I may not be finding as much time to write as I would like (and I only worked on ONE of my many goals at the start of the WIPMarathon this whole time! But it was the most important one), but even juggling all I juggled in January, I managed to get a significant chunk done. I’m surprised, actually. It felt like I had NO TIME to write, but that clearly wasn’t true. That gives me hope that even when I’m overwhelmed by the rest of my life, I will find a way to write, even if it’s not every day, and it’ll help keep me sane.