I’m a cyclical person. It’s not a new thing. When I used to teach group fitness, I would cycle between thinking my classes were some of the best in the studio to thinking they were the worst. When I was a children’s librarian I would go between “I’m going to be the best librarian in the world!” straight down to “I hate this work, why did I ever spend so much time and money on this masters?”
I do it with parenting, too. Some mornings, I’m super mom and everyone eats a healthy breakfast and then we play outside with rosy cheeks and learn about what’s growing in the garden. And some mornings, I wake up after less than three hours of sleep with a sick three-year-old, a nightmare stricken five-year-old, and two needy 18 month olds. I can barely get everyone dressed before 10 am. (Just now, I stopped writing here for ten minutes to be mauled by twin one-year-olds and to read an animal sounds book twice because I am worried about how few words they both have and today is their well-check at the doctor. Fingers crossed she doesn’t suggest early intervention for speech, because I don’t think I could take it.) Writing is the same. I get so excited when I have a new release! I get some sales (not many). I get some pages read in KU (some). I get some reviews (usually good!). And then, it all stops. I run ad campaigns. They don’t work. I post links on twitter and on Facebook. Nothing really. I use a penname and only 3 people in the world who know the real me also know this penname, so I don’t get any added sales from relatives or people from high school who want to see how horrible my writing is and gossip about it. But then, I start writing a new book, and I get into it again. I feel like, this, this is the one that’s going to get readers excited! Excited enough to tell their friends to check it out. Excited enough to buy all my backlist and pre-order whatever is coming next. Doubt will inevitably creep back in, as it has this morning, but for a little while, it’s nice to ride that hopeful wave. Here’s to the hopeful waves, writing community. May yours be often and strong. Love always, Lucy
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is available for pre-order! Click here to grab your copy from Amazon :) I love this story and I super love the acknowledgements page. If you pick up a copy, don't forget to read it!
I was out of town this weekend for my sister's bridal shower so I got little to no work done. It's definitely hard to get any writing/editing/marketing/publishing done when sharing an adjoining hotel room with your mother who doesn't know about your secret writer life. I'm home now and able to work freely, lol. My ARCs for Waiting for You are on booksprout, so if you are a member, go grab a copy! Tonight, I will start my pre-editor revising of Only You and I'm excited! Because I wrote this story twice, and it's been since February since I looked at it, I'm sure there will be things in there that surprise me! This story takes place in academia and thankfully my editor/ roommate from college is a professor and has promised to make certain everything is correct. I told her to be merciless (and she will). I had originally planned to write half of the next book I'm going to work on this month, but I'm really glad I pushed it back. Between traveling, releasing Waiting for You, having Star-Spangled Weekend beta read, and now editing Only You, I probably would have lost my mind if I was also writing. In other news, I will be gardening this weekend! I'm adding a raised garden bed and considering three apple trees. Every year I grow lots of flowers and veggies, plus a blueberry bush, a lemon tree, and strawberries. This year is going to be even more! I'll post pics for those of you plant-inclined people. Have a wonderful week! Love always, Lucy Seriously. Where did it go? I swear it was just March and now it's going to be May on Wednesday. This month flew by.
I finished writing Happy Holidays #2, did an editing round on Happy Holidays #1, sent HH1 off to my established beta readers, and will be sending it to new betas tonight. I also ordered my cover art for Waiting for You today! My cover artist lives in the UK, so when I request something after two pm here, I usually wake up to cover art! It's a great feeling. Now, I am in the midst of doing a final edit of Waiting for You. After I finish, I leave it alone for a few days, then do my final read through and prepare it for pre-orders! I'm really excited about this story in particular. When I came up with the idea of this series, Austin and Lexi's story (And Then It Was You) popped into my head first, but Lincoln's was fully formed in my head very quickly afterwards. And much before Colt and Isla's. I also hate to play favorites, but if I were going to marry a Seabrooke, it would totally be Lincoln. Don't tell Austin and Colt! Once Waiting for You is finally off on its own and out of my hands, I will be going back to the final Falling for You book, Only You. I haven't touched it since February, and I am really looking forward to getting back to it. I'm taking the month of May off from writing, mainly because between all the editing and publishing, I just don't have time! I also promised myself a little breather. I tend to be able to do three straight months of writing (a novella per month) and then I need a break. In June, I'll be writing the first book in my next family-saga-series, as well as outlining and laying the framework for the entire thing. I've been having A LOT of fun in my brain with this already. They will be filled with tropes-galore and be much more emotionally-driven, rather than filled with suspense. I also have some publishing news! Come June, some of my books will be available on other platforms! The entire Happy Holidays series will immediately go to all platforms and my other series (Falling for You and the forthcoming series) will be in Kindle Unlimited for three months and then leave for other platforms. While I like the ability to reach so many readers in Kindle Unlimited, I would like to branch out to other platforms as well. I've hemmed and hawed with this decision for months, and I am FINALLY feeling at peace with it. And with that, I better go! I would love to go upstairs and work on a few more chapters of Waiting for You, but I have four hungry kiddos that need dinner! Happy Spring! Love always, Lucy It's finally here! Dance for You is out in the world! Yesterday, I was CRAZY anxious about releasing it. I have no idea why. There were a lot of other things happening (my oldest kid has pneumonia, I hadn't slept in 3 days, and a combo of everything has made my stomach hurt for the past two days) but the good thing is, at least with Amazon, once you schedule your pre-order and get past the point of no-return, it's happening.
And it happened! This morning before I woke up, it released. I'm not sure exactly when Amazon books go live, or what time-zone they go live in first, or how any of it works. If you know how it works, drop a comment; I would love to know. And now, a quick recap as to what I've been doing the past two weeks. Writing. Writing a lot. I'm almost done with Happy Holidays #2! I have about 5 more days of writing left (I hope), and then I leave it alone. I really like my schedule of writing something like crazy, and then doing other work for either a few weeks or even a month or two before coming back to it. It allows me to "forget" the story a little, so that when I do my first round of editing, I have completely fresh eyes. Next week, once I have completed writing it, I have a lot to do. I'll do a round of rewrites for Happy Holidays #1 and then it will go to beta readers, I'll order a cover for Waiting for You (Falling for You, #3), and I'll do a round of beta-reading edits on Waiting for You. Then, very quickly after that, I'll do a read through/ edit of Only You (Falling for You, #4) and send that off to my editor. I do love putting a cover order in the midst of a ton of work because I do really love getting cover art. It's like a little present to myself after all the hard work! I gave myself a little bit of a crazy release schedule this spring/ early summer. Once we hit July, I'm taking a few months off of the write-edit-release madness. I won't have another release until late September, and then another break until December. My original goal was to release 8 books this year, but starting in March, I realized that wasn't quite feasible. I moved a book I was going to release in November to December, and another one to January. I've found I have a hard time writing in December and January after the burnout of Nanowrimo/ 3 of my kids' birthdays/ Christmas/ New Years. It's a good time of year to be releasing rather than doing some heavy writing. I hope you are enjoying April! We're coming up on my birthday month (May!) and I've requested a toaster and microwave as gifts, since I am turning 36. Maybe next year I'll request something fun, like a trip to Quebec (swoon). Love always, Lucy Happy April! We've had a few warm days this week, lots of rain, and our tulips are poking out of the ground, so spring must be on its way!
Even though it's only day three of Camp Nano, I'm deep in the throes. I've gotten about 4k done so far, and am aiming for 2k per day this first week. I'm sure it will taper down in the coming weeks, so I like to get a big jump at the beginning of the month. I also have a very busy second half of the month, so I need to get the majority of my writing done in the next two weeks. Writing: I'm working on Happy Holidays #2, which is a Halloween romance. Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday, though it is a little weird to be getting in the "autumn spirit" in April. In particular, I'm loving the setting of New Hampshire. I was there in October two years ago, and I adored it. Editing: This week, I'll be doing my final read of Dance for You (Out April 17!) I thought I had already completed my final read through, but when I did it, I ended up adding about two paragraphs. I'll do one last read through to be completely certain I didn't make any grammatical mistakes or repeat myself elsewhere. Happy Holidays #1 is back from the editor with some notes, which I will be tackling in a week or two. Then it will be off to the betas! Waiting for You is back from my last beta with some notes, and I'll also be doing those at the end of the month. And somewhere in here I need to do an edit of Only You before I send it to the editor. YIKES. I might have to get a babysitter one day! Marketing: Ah, marketing. The actual worst part of indie publishing (in my opinion). I got some good advice from a very successful indie author (who just happens to be one of my younger sister's best friends). She told me to hold off on any paid promotion until you have an entire series released. That way, if you manage to snag some interested readers, they can read the first... and the second... and the third... and so on. Let me tell you, this is hard advice to follow! But, I told myself once I released Dance for You, I would do one small ad campaign on Facebook. Just to wet my whistle. I'll be doing a heavy marketing push in July, once the Falling for You series is complete and the first Happy Holidays is out. I'm not releasing anything between mid-July and the end of September so those months will be all about writing and marketing. Reading: Finally! What am I reading... well, I finished Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas and, as always, it did not disappoint. I just started The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo for my bookclub. I would have read more last night but for some reason as soon as I turned off my light (even with hubs snoring next to me), I felt very afraid of ghosts. So, I will be reading more of that tonight, but earlier. (I actually have no idea if this book will be spooky in the least. I don't read too much about the books I read in the bookclub beforehand. I like to go into it with no expectations.) I have some ARC and beta-reading to do this week/ month as well. Sometimes I think I bite off more than I can chew when it comes to reading and writing, but it always works out. And that's it! (I think...) Happy Wednesday to you all! Now, I'm going to pile the girls into the car so we can go to Trader Joe's. I need some easy to prepare meals so I can write while things are in the oven! Love always, Lucy I haven't blogged in a long time! In my defense, I've been working really hard.
Quick Update: Dance for You (Falling for You #2) is nearly ready for pre-orders! I will also be releasing a small amount of arcs (advanced readers copies) onto booksprout and will let you know here when they are ready! I did a round of editing on Waiting for You (Falling for You #3). It will be coming out in May (still working on an exact release date.) I finished writing Happy Holidays #1. I've actually changed the title! I'll do a big announcement when I am 100% certain I'm sticking with this one. This book was a ton of fun to write. This series will be a lot lighter than Falling for You. I describe it as a Hallmark movie but with some steamy scenes thrown in ;) This book will be going off to my editor later this week. AND I wrote the first chapter of the first book in the Ex-Pats series. I'm not supposed to be working on it until May, but sometimes future characters won't leave me alone and I need to appease them just a smidge. I also sat outside in the sun and did some heavy note taking for this entire series. I'm really looking forward to writing it! On the horizon, I'm writing Happy Holidays #2 in April for Camp Nanowrimo. I have already finished an insane outline and am feeling pretty good about that. This one is a Halloween romance, so I look forward to getting in the autumnal spirit in April :) I will also be doing the majority of my edits for Happy Holidays #1 this month, plus getting Waiting for You ready for publication. It's going to be a busy month! Okay, that was a lot about writing, so let's switch gears and talk about what I've been reading! I'm beta-reading for a twitter friend right now and am totally obsessed with her book! I've also read the first two books in the Winston Brothers series by Penny Reid (obsessed), The V-Card by Lauren Blakely and Lili Valentine (a lot cuter than I thought it would be), Wicked Surrender by Carole Mortimer (very dark and naughty), and last night I started The Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas. Whew! I'm also doing an arc reading for Therese Beharrie, but am only one chapter in. I'll post a review here once I am finished and can link to where you can purchase it! And that's about it! I've been writing and reading a lot. My oldest is on spring break this week, so I have a feeling it will be a little harder to get things done. Unless I can convince him to start taking naps, which seems unlikely. Happy reading and writing! Love always, Lucy Seven months after I decided to go the indie publishing route, I have officially released my first book! It's wonderful and overwhelming and I can't really sleep and my stomach hurts.
But! I love it. I've gotten a few good reviews (yeah!) on Amazon and Goodreads, which is amazing! I'm waiting for a few more reviews to come through from an ARC site I used and hoping everyone enjoyed it just as much as the first two! It's been a busy week otherwise. I chose cover art for Dance for You. Spoiler alert: it's amazing. I might be biased, but I think my cover artist does a phenomenal job with her work, and she's kind and friendly to boot. I have one more beta reader going through it for me this weekend, and then next week I do the final read-through. The plan is to have it available for pre-order April 1. At the moment, I'm going through some edits for Waiting for You. I finished writing my first Happy Holidays book yesterday (woohoo!) and if you're a writer like me, you need to step away from a work before diving into editing. Once I go through this round of editing Waiting for You I'll dive back into editing Happy Holidays #1. It's set to be my fastest turnaround yet, and will be the first book I publish across multiple forums (Nook, Kobo, iBooks, as well as Amazon). And... I signed up for Camp Nanowrimo! I've never done it before, and we all know what happened during regular Nano this year (I wrote too much and had to scrap nearly 20k words which hurt my heart a lot), but I have a plan. My goal is 30k, so it will be just enough for me to finish writing a novella. Then, I'll use the rest of the month to work on some edits. I hope you are having a lovely mid-March. We had snow last week, snow today, but yesterday it was 60! The midwest is weird. But at least the ice is gone. Happy Friday! Love always, Lucy Until And Then It Was You is released! Woohoo!
This has been a whirlwind last few days. I've been working really hard to make sure everything is ready for the release. I got approved as a new Goodreads author (check out my page and follow here) and my Amazon author page is up! I also have ARCs up on Booksprout. If you are interested in reading and reviewing an advance copy of And Then It Was You, follow this link! There are 10 copies left, and they've been going pretty fast, so don't dawdle. In writing news, I'm tearing through the first book in the Happy Holidays series. It's been a blast to write so far. This series is basically like Hallmark movies, but, you know, if the characters got laid at the end. I'm loving the low-stakes conflict and holiday back-drop. It's a lot of fun. When I dive so thoroughly into writing (20k words in 10 days), not a lot else gets done. My plan is to finish my first writing of this by next weekend, and then take a quick break while I do some beta edits of Falling for You #3. Then, I will dive back into Happy Holidays #1 with a second go before sending it off to the editor. I need that book in the hands of beta readers by May 1st and the absolute latest for a June release, which is the plan. I hope you are having a nice March! It's raining here and melting our mountains of snow, which I am loving. Here in the Midwest, we affectionately refer to March, and at least part of April as Mud Season. Enjoy your spring, however it presents itself. Love always, Lucy FINALLY!! And Then It Was You is available for pre-order on Amazon! I'm so excited. I'm so excited that I was looking at the beautiful page here and got hit in the face with an empty bottle during breakfast. Snap out of it, Mom, I need more blueberries. Let's look at that beautiful cover art.
When I started this blog, writing about writing, I promised I would keep on top of it. I would post about the long list of topics I made to do with writing, indie publishing, reading, etc.
Whelp. In my defense, I've been busy working. I finished my second draft of Waiting for You. I've been beta reading several different works in different genres. Sadly, I am not working quite as fast as I hoped. In order to stay on schedule, I need to do my next set of revisions on Dance for You, finish all open betas, and do a final reread of And Then It Was You by March 1. And I HAVE to finish by March 1, because I need to start writing my Fourth of July novella on March 1, or it will be shelved until next summer. I do have a very extensive outline written, and I'm very familiar with the setting (which always helps), and the plan is for it to be 30k rather than 35k. BUT STILL. Last night, I was freaking out to my husband and he said, just move everything you're stressed about back by a month (A perk of creating your own deadlines). That's nice, but a Fourth of July book can't come out on July 20th. But, I know I can do it. Part of the reason I know I can is the amazing support system I've found among writers. Some are friends from college, some are new friends from twitter. March will be a crazy month, but then I'm taking off April from writing and concentrating on getting everything that will be published before August ready for publication (editing, formatting, covers) This weekend I'm heading to Las Vegas for my much younger sister's bachelorette party. I'm not a Vegas girl. I don't drink, I don't gamble, and going to a loud club is my personal brand of hell. But, it's what she wanted to do, so I will be boarding a plane to Sin City tomorrow. The silver lining is that I have two very long plane flights to get my mountain of work done. I'm also hoping everyone is hungover on Saturday and I can work and enjoy a walk in the 50 degree weather. Here's to smooth flights, no vomiting, and a productive weekend. I'm definitely the first person ever hoping for a productive weekend in Vegas. Love always, Lucy |
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