Updates IV

Hello, friends! 

I realize it's been quite a gap between this and my last post, but I assure I have not been inactive! 

Given I don't have much time to complete a full post at the moment, and I don't really want to make a new banner for one, I figured I'd just give you some updates (again). 

Reading Updates:

I haven't been reading much lately, as I've been doing a lot of alpha, beta, and proof reading. But the book I'm currently 'on', is book #3 of The Rangers Apprentice.

I'm also saving up to buy a lot of books (including: Azalei's Fall by Miranda Marie (third book in The Fire Rain Chronicles),  Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson, the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce (sequal to Tricker's Choice), and The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles by R.M. Archer). It'll cost a small fortune, but it'll be worth it. 

Path to Publication Updates:

Ah yes, that great challenge I assigned myself. Your guess is as good as mine for how that's going.
I started this challenge, or more of I told you that I started this challenge, on the 7th of May. That post detailed my plan for this large task, and I can heartily tell you that I have not fallen behind. I've not written as much as I'd like to, but I still have a few months before October to finish this draft, so there is hope yet.

'Roslyn' is now at 66,430ish words, and still not done. I've come to realize that I don't like to rush through my story, that every travel-scene is important, that every character's point of view is important, and that each scene is, to some degree, important and not to be rushed through. 

But I'm only a little more than halfway through the actual plot, and so if this keeps up, I may either need to cut back on words, split it into two books, or I can just let it be 100k+ words and follow in Sanderson's footsteps. 

We shall have to wait and see. 

Other:

On blogs: 

R.M. Archer released two posts  recently ("Why I Read YA (even though it often stinks") and "5 Things I'd Like to See in YA Literature") that really caught my interest. They're really well thought out and detailed, and for me, they really got me thinking. 

You should check them out, as well as her blog in general.

Maple from Maple Quill Penning Magic has this wonderful feature on her blog where she makes a poem and uploads it each week, and I got lost looking through them today. So if you feel like reading some short poems and looking at pretty imagery, check out her poems of the week archives. 

On life:

I'm resuming work on my desk! Now that the winter months are over and a certain country-wide annoyance is lightening up (...sort of... not really, but, one can hope) we can retrieve the remaining needed supplies for it. 
It's nearly done, building-wise, and soon I will begin decoupaging the entire thing and adding embellishments here and there. Then, I'll begin my quest to find a nice desk chair to replace my rather uncomfortable and slightly too tall stool. 

Well, that's all I have to say for this post.

    Adieu, 

                    ~ E.P.

The Upcoming Author Tag, Ft. Everlasting Gold by Mattie May

                   

                               
   



Greetings, friends!

I have made my very first blog tag!
The inspiration for this tag came from my friend Mattie May's debut novel release.
I wanted to help spread the word of it to as many people as I could, and (knowing that my blog has yet to reach a very wide audience) came up with this tag.


Rules:
(If you choose to participate in this. I know that some bloggers don't like promoting work they aren't familiar with, that don't fit their themes, or that isn't from someone they know.
I also know that this isn't exactly a "fun" tag, as you're not doing much writing. This tag is purely meant to spread the word of indie authors and show them support, like handing out a flier and sticking up posters.
So please, if you read this and decide it isn't your cup of tea, feel free to pass on participating. :) )


1. Re-post the following on your blog

Copy, paste, and post it. 

If you know and/or contact the author to add more to this tag (like if you would like to do an author interview), or have written a review for the book, or have anything of the sort, feel free to add them to the "Notes" section (and you can also wipe a previous poster's "notes" and just include your own if you want to). If not, feel free to just type "N/A" and move on.
The "Notes" section can also be used for the author to include some notes, but the current author doesn't have any to include.


2. Be sure to include the listed links

The links that will be included in this post all link back to the author and published piece, they are really important to this tag. Please remember to include them.


3.  Tag three (or more) blogs

Writing, book-related, and indie artist blogs, in particular. It's okay if you share them to other blogs, but I don't know if they'd be as appreciative of it as fellow indie artists.


4. (Optional) Snag the tag!

If you are or someone you know is publishing a debut book, feel free to snag this tag and edit it accordingly, then spread it around!



Let's get on with the tag!


~ Book Details ~

Cover: 

Title: "Everlasting Gold"

Blurb:

Several decades. Two estranged brothers. Love separated by culture. Family, redemption, and forgiveness.With America on the brink of the Civil War, the successful Dr. Billy Taylor is sent by the infamous Knights of the Golden Circle to find the stolen gold of the robber Rattlesnake Dick. When he needs to get to California without suspicion, he uses his estranged brother Philip's family. Little does he know how his heart will be caught by his young niece, Angie. Will Angie still love her uncle after what he has done to her and her family? When everything comes undone, will there be forgiveness?

~ Ordering Details ~

Release date: 

4/23/2020 (out now!)

Pre-order link: 

N/A

Ordering link(s):

Paperback

Kindle


Prices:

$10.00 USD Paperback

$4.99 USD Kindle


~ Notes+Extras ~

I have had the pleasure of reading snippets of this book, as well as editing some chapters of it. I can't vouch for the entire book, but what I did read I really enjoyed. The characters are sweet and endearing, and I'm really excited to read it all the way through now that my copy of it has arrived.


~ Author Bio ~

Photo: 

Name: Mattie May

Links: The Blossoming Writer Blog, Facebook (@Mattie.May.Author)

Mini Biography: Mattie May is a Christian teen writer. As soon as she could read, a desire to write her own stories was kindled. She was always taught the importance of history and soon her love of writing and history were combined into historical fiction.
She lives in central California with her family, chickens, ducks, two German Shepherds and too many cats.
When she's not writing you can find her playing her harp or the piano. You can often find her getting attacked by animals of unusual size, aka her sweet dogs


---------------------------
Blogs I'm tagging:

(because this is the beginning of this tag, I'm tagging more than three blogs.)

Julia at LitAflame

Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea

Khylie from K.M. Small, Fiat in Faith and Fiction  

Millie from Millie Florence 

Jenna from Jenna Terese 

That's all, folks! Hopefully this inspires you to check out Mattie's book, or to share the information, and show some support to an indie writer. 

Have a wonderful day, 

                ~ Edna Pellen

Happy Memorial Day

A Tear for the Fallen

by

Edna Pellen

*Dedicated to the past veterans and the families of the lost veterans. 

Thank you for your sacrifice.*

A tear for the fallen

A tear for the lost

A tear for the veterans 

Who let us gain through their loss

A smile for the family

who let their loved one go

A flag for the orphaned children

Their parents no more to know

An ache for the blood

lost on foreign land 

A cry for the victory

and freedom bought by passed away woman and man

Love for the country

that they died to defend

A promise to not forsake the freedom

A promise not to let it end

Don't Forsake Your Story

Dear writer, 

We live in a world bent on diversity. And that can be wonderful, because clearly God has made all men equal. No race and neither sex is anything more or less than human, and no belief warrants cruelty from another. 

And yet, society has taken race, sex, and religion and caused it to further divide, not unite.
But that is a subject for another day. I'm not writing to you to tell you what you very likely already know. I'm here to encourage you, when you're under pressure, to not bend to society.

What I mean by that is that content creators, writers, artists, musicians, film makers, are being pressured to include things in their work that they wouldn't otherwise include, and that's really damaging the world of artistic content. 

Writers are throwing in LGBT+ characters or making characters suddenly become gay or pansexual or asexual or bisexual or what have you, they're plugging in characters of a certain race that weren't there before, they're tossing in characters of some religion, they're shoving in a "strong independent women" attitude in their heroines, they're including arcs that make no sense and they're ruining dynamics, all for the sake of pleasing society. And I have yet to see this be carried out and written well.

Now, I'm not writing this because I am against diversity. I am a Christian and do not believe or support a few religions, beliefs, and the LGBT+ community, but I don't hate the people in them, either. I'm not against strong or independent women, in fact I would love to see them properly depicted more often. And I am not against any race.
What I am thoroughly against, is authors being pressured to include any of the above where it is not due. I am against an author forsaking their story for the sake of pleasing society. 

If you are writing something that includes these things, and they are genuinely a part of the story and the characters, carry on. 

If you are writing something, and shoving in some or all of these things for the sake of society, please, stop. You don't need to please society, it's okay for you to write your story and characters how you want to write them. And if you are called sexist, racist, homophobic, or religion-ist, then so be it. You know that you aren't those things, you know that you are staying true to your story. Your story, writing style, and character development will suffer greatly if you force yourself to write something that is wrong for the story, and you'll lose the good readers.

Then there's all the stuff that isn't political or about diversity, it's about your writing choices.
If you choose to have a character do X thing, or if you move the plot in this way when someone suggest you do the other way, or if you cut or add a character, or how you end the story, it is all up to you. The decisions you make in a story are yours to make.
Receiving advice, constructive criticism, having someone to help you brainstorm, being given word choice suggestions, these are all great things. But at the end of the day, those things are just ideas. Ideas that you don't have to take or follow through with. Sometimes, maybe you should, and when they're coming from experienced writers they're especially worth considering. 

Still, the only person who knows your story as well and in-depth as possible is you. You know things that may never make it into the book, you know minuet things about the characters that still manage to affect decisions, you know how you want your story to be received, you know the atmosphere and aesthetic and plot and every little thing so much better then anyone else ever could. So only you can make the decisions as to where your story goes and where it's written, and if something suggested to you feels wrong, you are under no obligation to go through with the suggested idea.

Stay true to your stories, friends. 

    Yours,

                   ~ Edna Pellen

On The Path to Publication: The Strategy

Hello!


I have begun an exciting journey; I am planning to publish a novel.
I'm not doing this soon, but I am doing this. I'm not letting that dream sit around anymore, but I'm not blindly running after it like all those inspiring quotes say.
Nope, I'm making a strategy.

This is it, so far:


May-October: Finish the first draft of Roslyn. 

I'm close. I'm really close. If you hop on over to my WIPs page, you'll see it has reached 50k words. That's a novel-length story.
But, I have a problem with that; I'm no where near the end.
How I managed to reach 50k when the story is just reaching the middle of the plot, I have not a clue. There's no way I can stretch it into two books, though.
So, I'm letting this first draft do its thing and will fix it later (which will likely involve cutting out a lot of stuff to make it a decent length).

I would also, ideally, finish this before October so that I can read through it before plunging into the next step.

November: Write the second draft of Roslyn for NaNoWriMo.

My plan for this is to copy my draft down and edit as I go. Ideally, I'd have it in a close to completed state.

December: Take it easy.

For December, I'm giving myself a break. I won't necessarily stop working on Roslyn, but I won't have any deadline to meet or anything.
I'm doing this for a few reasons:

• Holidays
• A tradition among my writing group to do a secret-santa short story swap.
• I don't want to get burnt out. This'll take a lot of effort, and I'd hate to complete the goal just to. become deflated and apathetic towards my story. 

I will probably at least read over Roslyn to be ready for the next step.

January: Edit the 2nd draft of Roslyn.

I'll be spending this month reading over (if I hadn't already) and editing the second draft of Roslyn.

February: Send  Roslyn out to beta-readers.

This will be a really important step. It'll probably be the most important to me, personally, before hiring an editor and spending money (which is a whole different matter that I will discuss and mention here when the time comes).


March: Make the appropriate edits to Roslyn.

These edits will be based on what my beta-readers suggest.


{This on down is very iffy and may change as I go. So from here on down, it's guesswork.}

April: Send to omega-readers.

I don't know if that's really a thing in the writing universe, but this set is the final set who will be reading it. Their job isn't to edit, it's to read like a reader. To be my test audience, almost. I may or may not edit my work based on what they say.

May: Gap month. 

This is the next rest stop for me.


June: Business begins.

This is when I will begin all the money issues and "official" stuff. An official editor, choosing traditional or independent publishing, figuring out the cover design, marketing, earning money for all of it, and so on.
That will probably be about a year in and of itself. And I'll make a post like this one when the time comes. 

~~~~

I fully recognize that issues may occur, and honestly, I expect it. I don't have the best background when it comes to deadlines and commitment, and money will be a problem.
But this time around, I have a crew to hold me accountable who are all working towards the same goal of publishment. 

What you can do to support me in this:

If you find that you'd like to support me, there's a few things you could do. You could share posts of mine that you like, post my blog on any social media that you have, pin my posts to Pinterest, etc. That will help be greatly, because the more people who read this blog, the more chances I have of getting an audience dedicated to reading my work.
And when the time comes, buy my book if you've got some spare change.

But the main thing I'm asking of you, is that you pray. 

This is a big thing, and there's a lot of things I'll need to balance with it. School, money, family, mental health, and just generally stepping into adulthood.
So if you could pray that God leads me to the path that He desires, that I don't lose hold of life in doing this, and that God provides me with ways to earn and do what I'll need, I would be much obliged. 

I will keep you updated as this process goes. This will be a series that I'm calling "The Path to Publication", and this is the first stage, The Strategy.
The goal has no date, but I want to do this within two years. I think that's a fair amount of time; one year to write, one year to start the publishing process.

Here's to hoping, hard work, and sneaking up on a dream than tackling it and pinning it down so it can't escape. 

Cheers, friends.

           ~ Edna J. Pellen

P.S. Fun fact: Blogger refuses to accept that "publishment" is a word. But it, in fact, is! It is the act or process of making something publicly known; publication.