Here’s a roundup of where I stand on reaching my 2018 writing goals.

Reading Goals:

*****

Be Your Own #Goals by Kristen Martin: Self-help books aren’t my thing. The idea of reading cheesy sayings that are meant to motivate, but are as deep as a social media meme bored me. Martin’s book, however,  changed my mind about self-help books forever. BYO#G freed me from a writing funk I’d slipped into while struggling to write my novella. Martin’s conversational tone is delightful and overall the book is a short, to the point, and easy read.

 

****

The Race by Joan De La Haye: I wasn’t sure what to expect from this short story when I’d downloaded it, but it was surprising. The action was well paced. This is a entertaining little read.

Omega: An Urban Fantasy Novel (War of the Alphas Book 1) by SM Reine : The heroine, Deirdre Tombs, is the clichéd urban fantasy main character, a tough on the outside, but gooey on the inside, sassy snowflake whose parents are dead and her one-of-a-kind supernatural ability hasn’t reached its potential, yet. Her love interest, Gage, is boring. There are some plot holes in the world building that could’ve been easily fixed with a line or ten, but maybe Reine didn’t see them or she’ll fix them in book 2. What makes this a 4-star was the plot pacing. I’m a sucker for a high octane book and I read this in a day. It kept me turning pages. The action was exciting and the ending gave me, “the feels” even though I didn’t care about Gage or Deirdre. Overall, this is a good example of an urban fantasy novel.

Hidden Blade (The Soul Eater Book 1) by Pippa DaCosta: This was more of a 3.5 stars than a full 4. Hidden Blade is an urban fantasy with good world building and mythology based on ancient Egyptian gods. Osiris and Isis play major roles. What brought this book down were the blah pacing and even more blah main character, Ace Dante. He is a shade of better written male urban fantasy protagonists. I couldn’t make myself care at any of the emotional beats in the story because they were happening to characters that were either unknown (like the Ace’s mother who was not “on page”) or who were obnoxious (like the ex-wife love interest who Ace had zero chemistry with). Ace’s tragic backstory just didn’t mean anything to me. Also the climax ended in a deus ex machina, in my opinion.  What made this 4-star was the world building.

The Pendant Book 1: A Paranormal Murder Mystery (The Angela Fleetwood Paranormal Mystery Series) by Lawton Paul: This paranormal mystery is a novella that ends on a cliffhanger. Even though it’s short, the author sets a dark mood and imbues the small town of Chickasaw, Florida, and its people with life. The lead characters, Angela, with her sidekicks, Bo & Dog, are richly drawn. The paranormal element slowly creeps up on you.

Tested by Juliana Haygert: It’s a fun, fast, easy read about a college aged witch who liberates ghosts. As the title suggests, the main character, Hazel, is given a haunted mansion test by the Council of Light Witches in order to join their sisterhood.

Desperation (The Island Book 1) by C.B. Stone: I liked this book more than I’d expected to. It was an impulse purchase, but I’m glad I bought and read it. The main character, Reagan, is strong—not in a stereotypical “badass strong female character” way that really is an unrealistic, Mary-Sue that has become popular in urban fantasy these days. Reagan is strong willed, caring and brave

The Binding Witch and the Fortune Taker: The Kate Roark Magic Series #1 by Laura Rich: An enjoyable read. It started off slow, but the pace picked up after the second chapter. I will certainly read more adventures about hedge witch Kate with her mother and her friend, Indira.

 

***

Chronicles of Steele: Raven 1, Episode 1 by Pauline Creeden (good)

Cursed City (Shadow Detective Book 1) by William Massa (an okay book)

A Gathering Tempest (Broken Tides) by Catherine Jones (So so boring. No plot, no obstacles & reads like backstory)

From the Darkness (Blackwood Vampires Book 1) by E. J. King (instant love between a centauries old vampire and a teenage girl that he has been stalking since she was 7 or 8)

 

Writing Goals:

I finished writing my prequel novella! This is the novella I’d started way back at this time in 2017. I had put it aside to work on the main books in the Primordial Realms series. In April, I had dusted off what I’d started and decided to finish it. The novella’s name is, Tattoo Switcheroo. It’s about two side characters in the main series.

It is scheduled for a content edit later this week and I already booked a copy/line editor for the end of July. The novella came out to less words than I’d anticipated.  It’s only 21,000 words, where I was expecting the story to be around 30,000 words. Maybe the content editor will let me know if any scenes need to be added, padded or not.

Author Goals:

Hound Dog Confidential has been revised. It was split in two with the subplot (involving Niels and Elan) rewritten into its own novella. I tweaked the main plot (with the characters Leela and Reidar) to take out references to the subplot. I’m happy with the results, which surprised me because of how worried I was prior to reworking Hound Dog Confidential. The new novella made from the subplot will be called Cerberus Confidential.

Hound Dog Confidential has been pulled from e-book stores in preparation for the re-release and Cerberus Confidential is scheduled with an editor for copy editing and proof reading. I’m still looking for one for Hound Dog Confidential.

The short stories page is up on my website. One flash fiction piece I wrote in 2017 will post every month until the end of the year. You can read the first one, Just a Drink now.

I’m waiting on my cover designer for the covers for Tattoo Switcheroo and Cerberus Confidential, but at least that part is moving forward.

Finally, I’ve scheduled a copy editor for the fourth book in the Primordial Realms series in early October, but I have a ton of work to do before sending it to her based on my beta reader feedback and the developmental editor’s comments. Ugh!!

Moving forward, I plan to:

• Hire a proofreader for Hound Dog Confidential
• Finish the editing and book cover process for Tattoo Switcheroo, Cerberus Confidential, and Hound Dog Confidential
• Publish Tattoo Switcheroo and Cerberus Confidential in e-book and/or paperback
• Write at least one flash fiction or short story (that I haven’t written one since last year disturbs me!)
• Work on self-editing the 4^th novel in the series

What goals did you accomplish in second quarter?

I hope you liked this week’s blog post. You can read my first flash fiction story on the Short Stories page. Please let me know what you think by liking, commenting or subscribing.

Happy Independence Day!