This Blog's Moving

Hi all!

Yeah, it's been a long time. Mainly, life's been taking over.

Which means that I haven't really had anything to write about until recently. And when I had, I realized that this blog isn't really in the right place. Nor is it really focused in the right way.

So if you'd like to be updated on my progress, my Tumblr is the place to go.

I'll be keeping this blog open because maybe one day I'll need it again. But for now, thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at the new place.

Lots of love!

Misha

More of a hint on my mystery project.

Today, I decided to take a whack at NaNoWriMo. For those of you not quite aware of it, NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge where thousands of writers try to write 50k words in the thirty days of November.

It's pretty epic.

I actually wasn't going to do NaNo this year, but then I realized that I really really REALLY want to finish at least one more rough draft this year.

And yes, it's part of the War of Six Crowns series. This, for those of you who've been reading my goal posts on The Five Year Project, is the Mystery Project I've been working on for most of this year already.

Still not going to say more about it, because I know that once you've read the second book, you're going to get a serious buzz out of this one.

But for now, a song that very nicely sums up the story and the emotions in it:

 

Progress!

My goodness. I can't believe it's October already. I mean seriously. We're a third of a way through that too. Time's seriously flying at the moment.

It's been a while since the last time I posted. For good reason. I started a new business, which means that my available time has been severely limited.

So the good thing (especially for you, if you've read The Vanished Knight and want to find out what happens next) is that I'm spending most of my available time to get TVK and The Heir's Choice ready for publishing.

The not-so-good-news is that the time constraints I'm facing means that I probably won't be able to publish at the end of October as previously announced.

At the moment, I'm waiting for the covers, as well as for my final beta readers to let me know if THC is clean enough to send in for copy edits. After that, I have copy edits and formatting, then both books will be out there for the whole world to see.

Still. We're close.

In related news, I've finished (I think) the rough draft to book three in this series. Which means I'm right on schedule to publish it next year.

Since I love this song and it's perfect for the place I left off for book 3, I thought I'd share.

Update and Another Awesome Song

Sheesh! I can't believe it's almost being a month.

Sorry for disappearing on you! I didn't really mean to. But I kinda got busy... you know... writing the series.

Right now I'm editing The Heir's Choice and it's going to be awesome. At the same time, I'm busy writing its sequel. The plan is that I can get into rewrites by the end of the year and edit it into greatness early in 2015.

I've actually hit on a title for book three, but I'm going to hang onto it for now. Maybe it will change or something as I edit, and I don't want to confuse people by having too many titles out there for the same book.

Today's song comes from my playlist for Book 3. Specifically, I'm busy writing a scene with Callan and Darrion and this song seems fitting. The band, Zebra and Giraffe, comes from South Africa, my home.

Sadly, though, today's vid doesn't have a lyric's version available, so I'm just going to let you all get lost in the emotions.

Song from Wo6C3

I've been wondering about which song I would post here next and then today I heard this song at my friend Robin's blog.

It reminds me of the third book, which I'm incidentally working on at the moment. Yep. No long delays before publishing for me. I'm hoping to have book three and something related to the series published next year.

Anyway... the song. It's one of those I can't really say much about, since it does have a deep meaning to the story in book three. Still, you'll note it's pretty sad.

And that's for a reason too...

A song for Callan (Plus a series update)

Right now, I'm shaking with excitement. Trembling with anticipation. Squeeing.

Yes, I squee. Much more regularly than one would think.

But tonight, I thought I should share, because the source of my giddiness is The War of Six Crowns. 

I mentioned before that I've been working on The Heir's Choice, which is book two in the series. I also mentioned that editing this book is a pain in the ass, since I wasn't completely sure what to do to make the book stand on its own the way it's supposed to.

However a few days ago I decided to be brave and make a huge change, even though I didn't know how it would affect the end.

It will be affecting the end. Drastically so. But the good news is that the result is so epic that I'm literally itching to start rewrites on book 3.

More than that, I'm not going to say. (Because hey, I still want you to read the books.)

But because most of the epic-ness is centering around Callan, I thought I'd share a song that captures her character for me. And... well, because it's an awesome song.

Hope you enjoy!

  

Undisclosed Desires

Actually, now that I think about it, I actually do have some posts I can share with you all. Mainly, these will be songs that I use when writing and editing the first two books. (Still editing the second book. TVK is ready for re-publishing.)

I just think it'll be a great way for you to get a feel for the story. Later-on, I'll probably re-post some of the songs with scenes those songs define for me. Right now, though, I'm going to leave you in suspense a bit longer.

But I will say this: One of the things about this series (and something that sometimes makes editing and writing it tricky) is the emotional complexity in it. Not everyone wears their heart on their sleeve, but there's some deep and sometimes dark stuff going on under the surface.

And this basically means that Muse is always an excellent choice for me to write to. And probably the most relevant song when it comes to the romantic aspects of the series is this one:

I've been absent again lately and feel horrible about it!

Just went through a bit of a tough time with my editing, and needed to focus on that instead.

The good news is that I'm finally getting into editing The Heir's Choice, which is bringing me closer to publishing the two first books of the War of Six Crowns series.

I am busy with putting together things I want to share with you on this blog, but at the moment, it's a bit difficult while I edit.

So for now, my posts here will remain sporadic until about (I hope) three months from now.

Thanks for your patience!

X

Announcing: What will be happening with The War of Six Crowns

I know that this is a weird time for me to post this, but I've had this moment of clarity while listening to an awesome song. And right now it's super-exciting and I'm just going to lay it all out there.

See... I have a blog for my writing, a blog for my life and this blog. And for a while, I've been struggling as to what to put on this one. I've been figuring some of this stuff out, but the truth is that only now things have fallen in place in my mind. 

The truth is that when I signed up for this writing gig, I sort of had this nebulous view as to what I wanted to achieve. Basically, I want to write a ton of books and I want to publish them and sell well. That was the goal. But now.... I've basically gotten hit by the sting of what this industry's like, and I've had to take stock of everything. 

And this song pretty much kicked me into gear.

Once, I split a good book into two in order to form The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice. And as a result, that good book grew a bit more epic. But let me take the moment to admit that I did this to fit in with my publisher.

Now, I don't have to. Now, I can do exactly what I want with my books. Which in itself was daunting. But now... now I've decided on a course of action.

This series has always been intended as one long story with four (and then five after the split) volumes. And the thing is that I still feel that The Vanished Knight feels a bit lonely without a friend. So I'm going to do something insane, and I'm going to publish it and The Heir's Choice at the same time. There's a method to this madness, I promise. But the first thing that I feel is that even after the split, these two books run together so closely that it feels wrong to put six months' minimum of a wait between them. At the same time, throwing two books with different minor arcs back into a single volume doesn't feel right either.

So two books you'll have. Hopefully by the end of October. And:

They. Will. Be. EPIC!

Speaking of epic, this blog is going to go to a whole new level, because I'm going to pop up at random to share awesomeness. Songs that inspire me? Check. Awesome scenes - cut or not? Check. Many other forms of epicness? Honey, you have no idea.

We're going to have so much fun.

A little taster from the War of Six Crowns Series...

So this morning I woke up with this song in my head. Which is interesting. See... I've heard it many times, but never really bothered to pay attention to the words.

Thing is... those words hooked somewhere in my subconscious and I woke up hearing: "And the walls came tumbling down on the city that we love." 

Now usually when a song's looping through my head, there's a reason for it. So I went around trying to try and find out why.

Now, it's an interesting fact that when I'm writing I have two muses. I have a general (female) one, that's kind of my creative mind going about inspiring me as if she were a separate person. And... well... it suits me to think of her as such. Because if I let ideas grow and expand organically and without conscious thought as I write, I generally write MUCH better.

So that's one muse. The other... Well.

The other is Darrion. Yup... as in one of the main characters from The War of Six Crowns. He kind of just started out as the first guy from the stories to show up in my head. Then he became their spokesperson in my head. And... Well... Now he tends to be the one to kick my butt into gear when I haven't been working on the series in a while.

And this, lovely people, was him kicking my butt into gear. Why? Well... I have book 1 to re-publish, book 2 to edit, book three to re-write and book four to start.

This song ties into book four on so many levels that it makes me emotional to think about it. But just in case you fear I'm posting a spoiler, nope. There's no volcano erupting and destroying everyone.

The words are all metaphorical, and deeply beautiful to me because I know the meaning. Sadly though, sharing the meaning will be spoiling, so instead I'll share the song and let you come to your own conclusions.

Bad news and good news

Hey all.

As the topic says, there's bad news and good news today.

Bad news is that The Vanished Knight was taken out of all its selling sights as my publishing house gave me the rights back.

The good news is that I'll be publishing it again very soon, and the fact that I have free rein with the book now, means that this blog will be a lot more fun.

Watch this space!

I'm still alive and being pensive.

I've been quiet on this blog lately.

It's not really something I wanted to do. But I've been working very hard on the guest house I mentioned before and a variety of books I'm writing.

Which is actually an interesting dilemma for me. My publisher seems to expect me to devote a significant proportion of my time to marketing. So they want me on social media to drum up new sales.

Thing is... It doesn't really seem to work. I have a significant platform elsewhere, adding up to about ten thousand people in my entire network. But no amount of posting, tweeting etc. about my book actually added up to sales.

Sales have happened, yes. But on days I did nothing related to the series.

Which means, the way I see it, that actually spending time devising and posting tweets, g+ postings etc. adds up to nothing. What has sold, however, was me building relationships through blogging. That I know, because most of you on my to-read list, I recognize from my blogging activities.

Ideally, then, I want to create the same type of society here. But it's difficult to create a society around something when most people out there haven't read my book.

It's a chicken and egg situation, really.

Hopefully I can figure this one out, though. I just need to put some more thought into how exactly I'm going to do it...

Just checking in...

I took a bit longer than I expected to get back to this blog. It's to be expected, I think, since I already run two other blogs, while doing a wide variety of other stuff. 

At the moment, a huge chunk of my time is going towards getting the guest house ready for business in February. It's hard, physical work and that means two things to me: earlier bed times and earlier wake-ups. 

See, if I'm to exhausted to think at the end of the day, I can't really write all that well. So if I want to get anything done, I need to wake up at least an hour earlier to do it. 

I'm doing quite well, though. As soon as I have some confirmation as to what's going to make it into War of Six Crowns Book Two, I'll get cracking on doing the rewrite to book three. 

Can't wait, really. Don't get me wrong. I love writing in general. I adore my new worlds and characters. But the truth is, the world of War of Six Crowns is like home, and I can't wait to go. 

In the meantime, I'm busy editing and drafting at the same time. I'm also reading whenever I can steal time. I want to read 75 books this year, which means I have to read about a book and a half every week. One of the books I want to finish is Les Miserables. I started last year, and have been inching along slowly but surely. I also want to finish reading Jane Austen's book, as well as at least a few of Shakespeare's plays. 

Yeah, that's quite different from the type of stories I usually write, but then, I read very widely. In fact, I'd probably read anything someone would give me. 

I'm reading Kinetic by my blogging friend SK Anthony at the moment. 

What are you reading today? Which books/authors are on your to-read list for 2014?

Happy New Year!

Hey all!

Just wanted to drop by and wish you a happy 2014. I hope it's full of blessings and great books to read. 

I think my year will be busy, since I'll be working to get my guest house off the ground. Added to that, I've set the most ambitious year-goals to date, and to make those goals a reality, I'm going to be doing a ton of writing and editing. 

I'll be back in January to tell you more about the War of Six Crowns series, though. I figure most of you are taking a break from reading blogs anyway. See you around the 10th! 

More on The War of Six Crowns: The Title

I've been thinking that this blog should have a bit more of a purpose, or else there's not really much of a point for it to exist. 

Since this is the War of Six Crowns blog, linked to the War of Six Crowns website, I thought I should maybe keep things relevant. 

So yes, I'll still be talking about me writing the series (and maybe some other stories), but I'm not really one for talking about me all the time. I thought writing about the story itself might be interesting, as long as I don't put spoilers out there, right? 

Right. 

So today, I thought I'd handle first things first and explain where the title came from. Well basically, it started back when I was still thinking of writing the story. In fact, I still thought I'd write the whole thing in a single book. 

I'd wanted to do things differently from what I'd been reading and thought I'd do a story about more than one hero in more than one country. Each country would have different cultures, power structures etc. and they'd all have some sort of conflict with each other. 

One of the countries would, for some reason, threaten all the others and they'd either stand together and fight or the one country would win and destroy the rest. 

As I wrote, I realized that the aggressor country would be Icaimerith. It used to be one huge nation rivaled only by the elves, but after one wise king, a succession of foolish ones lost bits on bits of the country in a variety of ways. (More on that later.) The last three kings have been looking to expand the realm to more than its former glory, no matter what the cost. 

The countries being immediately threatened are: 

Alfen Cairn: Land of the elves. In fact, the oldest realm in Tardith. They were the first line of defense able to stop the original Merithian expansion. But after decades (heck, centuries) of complacency, Alfen Cairn is now at the greatest risk. 

Ladrien: The country most recently split off from Icaimerith. Ruled by three kings, whose families used to be Merithian nobility. They'd split off in a rebellion, being the only area able to hold Icaimerith back for long enough for its king to "give up" and have been existing on a dagger point ever since. 

Then, there's Nordaine. It's not really being threatened. In fact, none of the others know it even exists, let alone where it is. But it's powerful, efficient and a huge power player outside of Tardith. It's the only country that could counter balance Icaimerith's strength. Problem is that it won't. All of the other countries leave people to die in Nordaine's wastes, which means that the majority of the population would feed the other five kings to wolves before actually helping them. 

But as the title suggests, Nordaine will be dragged into the conflict (willingly or not). I won't tell you how that happens, though. To find out, you need to read the books. *evil laugh* 

Any questions on the book or the series? Feel free to ask in the comments. I might not answer if there's a spoiler directly involved, but if not, I'll definitely get around to answering. Also, feel free to ask anything else. If you keep it clean, I'll answer that too. 

 

Just checking in.

Well now, the move is made. I'm busy unpacking and settling into the new house.

But how are the revisions going?

So far, so good.

The changes I've made are amazing so far. I really love where the story's going, and hope you will too. :-)

Other than that, I'm still a bit rushed off my feet.

So really, this is just a quick stop to wish a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers.

Will be back soon with something more substantial, I hope.

Coming Soon: The Heir's Choice

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm officially editing War of Six Crowns: The Heir's Choice. 

Hopefully these edits will be a lot faster and smoother, because I'm looking forward to seeing the whole Volume 1 of the series published. I have a lot to do, though, since I need to reread The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice as it is right now.

Last thing I want is to leave gaping plot holes and strings unattached. Couldn't possibly do that to you.

November will be a busy month for me though. Along with editing, I need to draft and move house in November, because I'm not sure as to how much I can do during the Christmas season. So I might be a bit absent around here.

Will do my best to post updates, though.

In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you a bit about what will be my new home. It's still in the Western Cape, South Africa, nestled in mountains that belong to us. The house itself is a rambling two hundred year old mansion with thick walls, wooden floors, a sitting room that'll fit a hundred people and a back yard the size of a football field.

Also awesome is the fact that it has a cellar that we're turning into a guest house, a swimming pool, a tennis court, a soon-to-be-existent jacuzzi and soon, horses. So it'll be one awesome place for you all to kick back or come get married. And to hang out with me, of course.  ;-)

I'm very excited about this move. It's a change of lifestyle for me. And who knows? I might even be able to write more now.

Why I Need Your Help, but Won't Demand It.

Thanks so much to the people who nominated me to some Goodreads lists. You picked some ones that really made me blush with pride.

The first two lists are sort of obvious, since they're my publisher's: The Vanished Knight is 11th on Fantasy and Paranormal Fiction from Etopia Press. It's 8th on YA Books from Etopia Press.

Awesomely, though, someone AMAZING (and yes, I checked who you are) went and put The Vanished Knight on the Best Books of 2013 and Best Books of October 2013 lists. It's 1791st and 60th respectively.

I must say that this was a pleasant surprise and really it's icing on top of me publishing The Vanished Knight. 

What to do with this, though, I don't know. You see... I'm really trying to not pressure people into voting for me and writing excellent reviews. To me, it's about having people read and enjoy my book. If they don't, that's okay too.

Call me an idealist, but I want my reviews to be honest. I want people to vote for my book on the lists because they really enjoyed reading it. Maybe that's foolish of me to say.

It's just that I want to make an honest connection with my readers. I want to know who enjoyed the story and who didn't. And why. With social networking and technology as it is, I think we do have space as writers to form deeper bonds with our reader.

But we can't do that if we expect readers to fawn and squee about the stuff I've written.

So yeah, I'm leaving this one up to you. If you read my book, think it's awesome and deserves some exposure, please please please DO leave a review, or DO vote for The Vanished Knight on the lists. ESPECIALLY please tell your friends about the story. As many people as possible.

I'm counting on you. *grins* It's so funny saying this when I know a very few of you are reading this post. But it's true. I've written the best book I can. I'm blog touring the heck out of it. But the point is, my reach, while going farther than most bloggers and writers, can only go so far.

The rest is you spreading the word if you care enough for the story to want it read. And for that, I have to trust you, mystery Wo6C fan, even if I'm not even sure if you exist yet.

Who I am and what I'm working on right now.

Hi again!

Sorry for being so sporadic in my postings. I'm still busy finding my stride with blogging (both profiles and all four blogs), writing and... well, living a life.

Good news is that at least I'm getting into the writing swing again. After I put up my previous posts, I had some issues with getting back into the groove.

Now, though, it's getting better. I'm just giving myself a bit of a break, reading as much as I can while still writing here and there. Slowly but surely, I'll shift my priorities back into their normal order, where writing is higher up than most of my other activities.

So what, you might be wondering, am I working on at the moment?

Not the sequel, just yet, although I'm expecting edits to start quite soon. The sequel to that's drafted already as well, so please please please tell your friends to buy The Vanished Knight! If sales are good, I'm pretty dang sure I'll get a contract extension to cover the rest of The War of Six Crowns. 

Right now, though, I'm pretty much working on getting a slew of different stories, ranging a variety of genres. I decided to put priority on a spy school story, which I'm enjoying as well. Then there's a YA Pirate story (a bit like Pirates of the Caribbean, but without the supernatural aspects), a Time Travel Sci Fi which I might just end up publishing under my current pseudonym and what might become a YA urban fantasy that would definitely be published under it.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, my name's Misha, and yes, that's what the M. in my pseudonym stands for. You'll probably be able to find my real identity profile with a bit of smart googling. Or, if you're a writing blogger, odds are, you found this blog through my other one.

I basically picked a pseudonym as a branding strategy, so that readers could figure out which of my books are in the same vein and which ones aren't.

Now I'll be stopping, but before I go, what sort of stories do you like to read? What are your favorite books? Feel free to list ten, if you can't pick one. ;-)

Getting back to writing...

It's an odd thing, being published.

After years of work on The Vanished Knight, I thought that finally publishing would be a great buzz.

Honestly, it's not.

The buzz came from actually finishing it. From knowing I had an editor who understood me. And now, from getting great reviews from people who read my books. Some from supportive friends (These give me the warm and fuzzies, by the way), others from people I never met before.

At the moment, I constantly feel like I should be checking my Amazon sales rankings. As if that would make any difference whatsoever. I can't really. It's not healthy. And it's stealing time.

So starting today, I'm going to get back to writing. Yes, I'll still visit blogs and I'll still respond to comments on guest posts etc, but I need to focus on my first love.

Creating stories is it. I still hope that The Vanished Knight will do well. Part of me believes it will. But I can't get transfixed by the scent of money.

Getting enthralled by a new story... Now that's another thing altogether...