Formatting

If you've read my last couple of posts, I’ve gone into the editing process and a bit about finishing up the first draft of Dirty Hit. Now, I want to talk about formatting the book.

I’ve done it both ways - formatted the manuscript myself into the ebooks and paperbacks you read, and I’ve also hired a designer to do it for me.

I love hiring a designer (I worked with Dee from Black Widow Designs on Beautiful Carnage and Sweet Destruction as well as Fallen Star), but the problem with it is I don’t have access to the raw file, so if something comes up and I need to change what’s called back matter (the links at the end, acknowledgements, etc.) I have to reach out and it’s a whole thing to change something relatively simple.

I also have the formatting software to do the formatting myself (I use Vellum), but I’m not a designer so the ones I format just aren’t as pretty as the ones a professional does.

But with Dirty Hit, I’m going to format it myself, so I thought I’d share what that looks like.

First, I go through the manuscript and figure out which chapter belongs to which character.

The reason I do this is because I like to have custom graphic headers for every chapter of my book. The formatting program has built in options, but I don’t like how generic they look so I design my own.

Next, it’s off to Photoshop.

I start by coming up with an idea. For this book, the eBook is going to match the style of the man chest cover instead of the alt cover. So, I look over the cover for inspiration:

For this cover, a few things stuck out that I wanted to explore in the chapter headers. First, I always try to match the cover fonts on the inside chapter headers, so I knew I’d be using the same font as the title. I also liked the rough ice texture and the city of Seattle in the background. Those things were my inspiration, so I took the idea to a stock photo website and started searching out elements.

These are the three stock images I used to create my headers. I played around with them a lot, but this is what I finally settled on:

I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Now I have to go through and make a new image for every single chapter. This book has 62 of them, so that’s 62 individual images. Once that’s done, the design aspects for the eBook will be ready to go when I get the manuscript back from all the editing parts.

I’ll post about the process as I go, but for now we wait.

The Process

I thought I’d give you a little peek behind the curtain of what goes on when I finish a book, so here goes…

You can read my previous post about when I finished writing the first draft of Dirty Hit if you’re curious about how it wrapped up. Once I had the first draft done, I didn’t waste any time. I decided a couple of months back to give pre-orders a try again for both Dirty Hit and Perfect Nightmare because it’d been a while and I thought it might be motivating to help me write faster.

It’s really not. All it does it stress me out like crazy. So, after those two books it’ll be a long, long time before I consider putting up pre-orders again. To me, getting the book right is more important than any timeline to release it. I want my books to be the best they can and that means not cutting corners.

Thankfully, the first draft of Dirty Hit was done with enough time to spare that I can do it right.

So what is “doing it right”?

First, I take a read through the entire manuscript. I take notes as I go of things that are inconsistent or words or phrases I notice that I’ve repeated way too many times. (In the case of Dirty Hit, I used the phrase “makes me” almost 70 times. Yikes. For example, “When he looks at me like that, it makes me want to jump his bones.”

This process took me 10 days this time around, including a couple of days I had to take off for migraines. I finished it up late last night.

Once that’s done, the file goes to my beta readers. For this book, I’ve got five of them. They each get their own copy of the file to make notes on. I ask them to point out things they love, things they hate, and anything that takes them out of the story.

After they finish, I go through and read all of their comments file by file. Then I tweak/edit the manuscript to reflect any changes I think need to be made based on the comments I’ve gotten.

Finally, the file goes to my editor where the manuscript goes through multiple rounds of edits and changes. I have ADHD so I really struggle with timelines. My editor does a great job of keeping the timelines of my books straight because otherwise they’d be a whole damn mess.

When the book’s gone through multiple rounds of edits, it’s then ready to format. I’ll make another post about that at some point as I get to it.

So, right now we’re in the “beta readers” stage of getting this book out into the world, and it can’t go fast enough. I’m impatient at the best of times so having to wait to get this book into your hands is driving me crazy.

But a little nugget you might be interested in: There are a few Savage Society cameos in Dirty Hit. You’ll see Romeo, Grave, and Wraith make an appearance in this book. Any theories as to what that means or what they’re doing?

Crossed Souls Rewrites Are Done!

Phew, what a journey! It took me an entire month, but I did it. Crossed Souls is now 16,000 words longer and I think the story is so much better than the original version. For context, 16,000 words is essentially the equivalent of four extra chapters (though I didn’t actually add any new chapters). I know all of my books are longer than your average romance novel, but hey, I’ve never pretended like I’m not a wordy bitch.

The entire start of the first chapter is completely different, and there are so many changes throughout the story now that I hope give more depth to the characters and make the worldbuilding better. This was my first time writing a paranormal story, and a reverse harem at that, and there are so many moving parts in the story that I really needed to figure out how to tell the story in my head while also balancing how much information I dump into the book without bogging the story down.

I hope I’ve finally struck a good balance between everything with these changes. If you haven’t read Crossed Souls yet, you can check out the new version by clicking here.

If you have already read it, the new version will be updating to your Kindle later this week (sadly, while Amazon delivers same-day, their electronic updates are still slow as hell) so keep your eyes out for that and let me know what you think of all the changes when you give it a read!

Next up… Bound Souls.

Plotting

I’ve written eleven books, and in that time, I’ve had a different method for plotting every single one of them. As a writer, I struggle a ton with perfectionism and I also have what I’m guessing is a raging case of undiagnosed ADHD on top of a type-A personality that drives even me crazy.

So, what does that mean for my writing methods? Welllll…. so much work goes into a book before I even begin, but the process has never felt quite right. It’s why I’ve used a different method every single time I’ve started a book.

Now that I’m moving on to Bound Souls and also Twisted Little Games and a new series I’m working on, I’ve actually stumbled onto a couple of methods I’ve used that I am absolutely loving.

Now, when I tell you that every other method I’ve tried has sucked, I’m not exaggerating. It’s sucked my writing mojo right out of me. I’m in this weird place where I need to plot in order to write because I’m not a pantser (someone who can literally fly by the seat of their pants in writing). If I sit down to a blank screen with no idea where I’m going, I’ll get nothing done and get massively frustrated, too.

So, I’d do some semblance of gathering my chaotic thoughts into a plot and then start writing. But this time… I figured out how to organize.

So, here’s what I do now:

1. I do a series of writing exercises as my character to get a better sense of who they are, where they come from, what’s important to them, what they want, what they can’t stand, etc. It’s 99 questions and really intense (aka takes a long time).

2. Every single scene idea, no matter how small, gets written down on a blank index card and tossed aside.

3. I do this over and over until my brain is dry.

4. Then, I transfer those ideas to sticky notes.

5. Finally, I put them in timeline order from start to finish for the book.

6. Then, I look to see where there are gaps. If it seems like something jumps randomly from one scene to the next, then I know I need something in between.

Check it out:

I like to use Finger Paint paper because it’s big and the notes stick on it again and again. I draw a line down the middle so I keep the timeline linear.

Scenes I decide not to use get left behind.

Now, for the character work I’ve started doing (this new series is the first that I’ve done the character work this way. In past blog posts, I’ve shown the old way I’d do things with a whole workup of the characters, but this new way allows me to really get into the character’s head like never before.), here’s a sneak peek of a new character I’m working on and the kind of writing prompts I’m going through for him:

Don’t mind typos, etc. This is not edited in any way and is supposed to be sort of a free for all writing exercise.

I’ll be talking more about this series in the future, but for now, you can see how really digging into a character’s head can be beneficial. I’m excited to see how it changes my writing moving forward (hopefully for the better!).

Crossed Souls Rewrites: Progress Update

I’ve been working my way through Crossed Souls and tweaking the story to correct some things I should’ve put in the first time around. Currently, I’ve added about 7,000 words to the story and I’m working on chapter nine.

It’s been fun going back through the start of this book and punching up Willa’s character. I actually yesterday was working on chapter nine and realized that I totally forgot about the list I made of things to look out for and fix in this book.

So, I had to go search it out. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have a serious problem with collecting notebooks. I have so many and they are everywhere. My husband has honestly given up the fight against the stacks I keep of them, and I try to keep them confined to a couple of areas only. See? Compromise.

Anyway, I had to go dig through all the notebooks because I was *pretty sure* I’d written the list in an actual physical notebook and not, like, a word doc or google doc or something. Eventually, I found it and when I deciphered my handwriting, I noticed there were a couple of things on there that I hadn’t already corrected.

So, I had to go back to chapter five and fix some Willa stuff. There were complaints about her character falling flat when she meets her Guardians, and I definitely don’t want that for her, so I’m working really hard to make sure she keeps her personality throughout.

I also had to write in a whole new scene between Gramps and one of the guys which was fun and I think explains some stuff that was left out before that’ll help the story make more sense.

This week, I’m hoping to make big progress but I always feel like that whole “my eyes are bigger than my stomach” thing when you’re really hungry and load up your plate and then can only eat half. That’s how I look at my rewrites. I always start out like, “Okay, I can do this. I can get the next… 15? Yeah, let’s go with 15 chapters done this week and then it’ll be ready to go.” And then the week comes and goes and I’ve done three chapters and beat myself up over it.

Still, I would really love to get this finished so I can start writing Bound Souls. I’ll update next week and let you know how it goes!

Dulls vs. Extras

Remember when I talked about how my world building was basically trash in Crossed Souls? I’ve had to do a lot of exploring of the world in my head to figure out all sorts of little details of Willa and the guys’ environment to change while I’m doing rewrites.

One of the things that kept coming up was the question do the humans know supernaturals exist?

I went back and forth, but ultimately I wanted them to know of each others’ existence, at least on a basic level. The humans don’t know about all supernaturals or all powers, but they know people who have powers that mere mortals don’t exist.

But then this created a whole other issue. What do I call each side? Humans? Mortals? Supernaturals?

So many things had been done before, and I had a discussion with my 11-year-old because they read a lot of fantasy which was helpful in fleshing out what I didn’t want to call them.

Ultimately, I decided on Dulls and Extras. Dulls for the non-magic/non-supernatural humans because the Supes find them horribly “dull.” They don’t have powers and they’re not really worth interacting with because of it.

For the supernaturals, they go by “Extras” because they’ve got all the human pieces but with all sorts of extras sprinkled in. They’re “extraordinary,” hence “extras.”

So, if you re-read the updated Crossed Souls, or skip it but end up reading Bound Souls, you’ll see these terms quite a bit throughout the series, and now you know what they mean.

Crossed Souls in the Making

I mentioned in my last post that Crossed Souls had started in my head as something so much different than it turned out to be when I wrote it. Originally, I imagined Willa as a sort of Cupid-like character. She was compelled to help everyone around her find their soulmates while not having one of her own and she was definitely bitter about it.

Here’s one of the very first things I wrote when I was trying to flesh out the idea (sometimes, I get a snippet of a character’s inner thoughts or a tiny bit of a scene so I just write it out and stick it in a folder to deal with later. In this case, I never did anything with it because the story went in a different direction):

The book was originally going to be titled “Soulbound,” and I’m really glad I didn’t stick with that one. It would still fit in the context of the series, but I like Crossed Souls better.

Once I had an idea of who Willa was, it was time to create her harem. I’ve always had a love for all things dark and psycho, so Hiro and Crew were the first two guys who flickered into existence in my head. Then, Ever and Knox joined the party… and I can’t promise things will end with the four of them.

I’ve talked about my series bible before for this book, but this thing is a BEAST.

For every character I create, I make a full write up on them. Here’s just a peek into part of Willa’s:

There are about three pages like this for each character detailing all sorts of stuff about them, and I do the same thing for places, familiars, villains, magic types, and everything else in between. It’s a pretty hefty file when all is said and done. It goes on and on…

Did you have any idea how much goes into writing a book? I know I didn’t before I started doing it myself! Now I’m curious: Leave me a comment and let me know who your favorite character in CS is.

Crossed Souls - Rewrites

Crossed Souls, the first book in my Twisted Soul Magic series, was my first foray into paranormal romance. This was a story that started out in my head as something so much different than it came out when I wrote it. It also was my first attempt at writing reverse harem, and y’all… that shit is hard.

So, even though I did a ton of prep work going into the series (my series bible is more than 6,500 words, which is roughly two full chapters of writing), at times I felt like the story sort of got away from me. Trying to keep all the voices, goals, and quirks of each character unique while keeping the story on track was definitely a challenge I felt like I started to lose as the book went on.

Despite all of that, I was happy with it when it came out… until I started to read the reviews. Because the readers weren’t loving it. You guys thought Willa was naive and stupid and let her life happen to her (a fair assessment, unfortunately, and not at all how I set out to write her), that some of the plot got repetitive, and that my world building left a lot to be desired.

See, as much as I try not to, I read every review and I like to think I’m pretty good at taking constructive criticism. Now, when someone leaves me a 1-star and tells me my story sounds like it was written by a man (yes, that’s an actual review I’ve gotten), I can laugh that shit off. But, when a bunch of people say, “I kind of hate your heroine,” or, “your worldbuilding doesn’t make sense,” I listen.

It’s because of reviews like that that I’ve decided to do some major rewrites on Crossed Souls to make it a better intro into the series. I’ve put Twisted Little Games and Emerald Hills Elite off for now (no idea when it’ll be releasing) because this needs to happen first. I’m doing a full (MASSIVE) rewrite on the entire manuscript of Crossed Souls to try and improve it.

So, instead of updating you on the progress of me writing TLG, I’ll be updating you for now on my rewriting progress and giving you peeks into the differences in the story from what it started out as to what it’s turning into.

For now, all I’ve managed to get through is chapter one. But, it got some pretty significant rewrites already. Let’s look at the beginning.

This is the way the book originally started. What I was thinking when I wrote this scene was that she was having a dream, one where her powers were activating and she was confused. She was coming into her first contact with her Guardians, though she didn’t know who they were or what was happening in any way.

In hindsight, I can see that to the reader, this whole thing is pretty confusing. It made sense in my head at the time because I knew where the story was going, but as a reader, you didn’t.

So, I changed the whole thing (though she’s still having a dream) to be more conversational, to have a bit more of Willa’s personality in it, and to hopefully have it make more sense what’s happening. I don’t even think before it was necessarily clear that she was dreaming, but with the new version, I really tried to punch that fact home.

So, you can see that the story has changed already quite a bit, and there’s lots more to do. I’ll keep you updated on how the rewrites are going, but so far I’m a lot happier with where the story is headed. Have you read Crossed Souls yet? If so, leave me a comment and let me know!

Twisted Little Games - Plot

Every book I write, my actual process of writing the book changes just a little bit. Well, I guess that’s not true—sometimes it changes a LOT.

I’ve talked about this before, but I’m a hardcore plotter. There are some writers (called Pantsers) who can just sit down and write and let the story take them wherever it wants. The thought of that gives me massive anxiety. Sitting down to stare at a blank screen with no idea where I’m going makes me sweat.

I tend to write out the big parts of the story (like where it’s going to start, end, and anything important from the middle) and then start to get more and more and more intense and detailed as I break it down until I have all the details worked out before I start writing.

As much as this brings me peace and lets my brain calm down enough to begin, it also really boxes me in. So much so that with two of the last three books I’ve written (Hostile and Chased), I’ve had to scrap the second half plans for both, do massive rewrites and then replot the second half. It’s a big undertaking that might not have been necessary if I’d just shifted the way I worked.

Yesterday I was stressing over Twisted Little Games because I know the characters. I know exactly where I want it to start and where it’s going to end. The problem is the middle is still a bit fuzzy for me and not a lot was coming to me when I’d sit and try to brainstorm.

Enter my writing partner slash awesome friend Cathleen Cole who said, “Why don’t you start with what you have and then when you get to the end of what you’ve figured out, plot the next bit?”

Uhhhh.

Lightbulb moment!

So, that’s how I’m writing this book. I started today working on the first chapter without the entire thing plotted out (eeeeep!). We’ll see if this way allows for more creative freedom without it being a total free for all or if it bites me in the ass, but at this point I’m willing to try anything.

Emerald Hills Elite Behind the Scenes

The Emerald Hills Elite series has been on my mind for a looong time. I don’t know if reverse harem academy books are still popular or not, but they’re a trope I love to read (and have loved to read for a while now). I’ve really itched to write my own story, put my own spin on the subgenre and so that’s where the idea for this series came from.

The name “Emerald Hills Elite” is a mix of a few things. “Emerald Hills” was a neighborhood in the city I grew up in (Edmonds, Washington). It was the fancy place that sat up on a hill and overlooked the grey-blue waters of Puget Sound. It was also the place where at Halloween, it was rumored the residents handed out full-sized candy bars (FULL-SIZED, PEOPLE) and so everyone would pile in their cars and head there for trick-or-treating festivities.

I’ve always loved the name, so I thought it really fit for this series. In this series, the city is called “Emerald Hills” and it’s a fictional place that I image is somewhere on what we called the “eastside,” which is east of Seattle. It includes places like Bellevue and Issaquah, if you’re curious. The city itself is up in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range so it’s got all sorts of pine trees and rocky lake shores that get all spooky when it’s foggy and the clouds hang low with rain.

That’s the setting I envision with this book.

There’s also another city literally on the other side of the tracks called “Mulberry.” It sounds like a nice place with a name like that—wholesome and sort of 50s-ish, but it’s not. Not at all.

(Side note: The name comes from the song “Mulberry Street” by Twenty One Pilots, one of my favorites from their new album and I wanted to give it a nod in the story. The song is falsely happy sounding, but when you listen to the lyrics, there’s a much darker undertone about mental health).

In order to keep track of where everything is in relation to each other, I drew a map (and yes, my art skills are trash but you get the point).

My original dry erase board rough sketch of Emerald Hills and Mulberry.

The prettier (but still not very good) one I made in Canva.

This story was originally going to involve all sorts of weird stuff (I was going back and forth about making it PNR, but decided against it… because there was a whole fountain of youth storyline thing that was just strange. Sometimes brainstorming goes in an odd direction), but in the end, I think I’ve got all the parts that will make this awesome fleshed out.

So, there are two rival gangs, a badass heroine, four guys in her harem (we’ll meet them later), two cities on complete opposites of each other, and a school that’s creepy and has its own issues.

Now, I just have to figure out how much (if any) bullying I want to put into the story. Originally, I planned to make this a bully romance but now I’m not so sure that’s what it wants to be. Thoughts?

Twisted Little Games - Prep Work

Now that Hostile is finished and out in the wild, it’s time for me to start working on my next project. I thought it would be fun to update you as I go, giving you a behind the scenes look into my process of plotting and writing the first book in the Emerald Hills Elite series.

Up until I wrote Crossed Souls, I’d only ever wrote “traditional” male-female books, so I never gave something like a series bible a whole lot of thought. It wasn’t until I started CS that I realized keeping track of all those characters and world details was going to be too much to just wing it.

So, I created a series bible and that thing was a total godsend while I was writing, and as I’ve started looking ahead to working on Bound Souls, being able to look back at all the info has been invaluable.

Knowing EHE was going to be the same level of detailed and intense, I knew right away before I even started on the plot I was going to need a series bible for it, so I’ve been building it for months.

What even is a series bible? Well…

It’s a file I keep with all the details on the series. My Emerald Hills Elite one currently looks like this:

Every single entry on that side bar has or will have details written in it about either a particular location description, it’s purpose, the characters and all their issues, etc. It really helps me shape my characters into real people who have real issues, quirks, and the type of people they are.

Yesterday I nearly finished my series bible for Emerald Hills Elite, although I don’t know that as long as the series is ongoing it’ll ever be finished. This time around, one other difference is I’ve spent time fleshing out the side characters and the bad guys so I have an idea of what makes them tick. Usually, I just make them very one-dimensional and toss them in the story and call it good.

I’m always, always, always trying to be better and this is one of the ways I think I’m growing as a writer.

Once I have the series bible done, I’ll work on the actual plot (though I’ve done a lot of this work already). I’ve got a rough outline. I know where the book starts and where it ends (it’ll be a cliff, sorry!) but the stuff in the middle is where I’m hung up at the moment. I’m hoping to tackle it either today or tomorrow.

Once the plot work is done and I have everything in line, it’ll be time to start writing. I’ll update again when things are done and just before I start so you can keep up with my progress in bringing this book to life.

I can’t wait to get started!

Progress Update

I thought it’d be fun to update you along the journey of writing my current books. So, what am I actively writing?

Chased:

I’m currently writing chapter four of Chased. It’s a Ronin POV chapter. When I wrote Captive, the chapters ran roughly 4,000 words each. So far, this book’s chapters are even longer at about 5,000 words each which are massive. Unfortunately for me, the harder I try to make them smaller the bigger they get, so I’m just going with the flow and letting them be whatever they need to.

I’m really excited about this book because it’s going to have even more action and be faster paced than the last one, too. I really should’ve finished chapter four yesterday, but my writing mojo wasn’t where it needed to be, so today I’ll be getting that done and moving on to Montana’s POV in chapter five.

Crossed Souls:

I’m still on chapter one for this book writing-wise. It’s from the FMC’s POV and Montana is such a dynamic character that I’m finding it hard to swap between the two of them because this FMC comes off as sort of boring in comparison.

The problem is I don’t want to make this FMC too similar to Montana and I have yet to really find the FMC’s voice. Because of that, I’ve stepped back from writing it for a couple of days to try and get a better hold on her personality. There was also a major piece of her background I was missing and didn’t realize it until I was actively writing.

Now, I’ve got all of that figured out so I feel pretty good about jumping back in and finishing the first chapter. My other issue is I hit all my plotted scene bullet points for chapter one and it’s only, like, 1700 words which is way too short to be a decent chapter, but I’m hoping with the bit of backstory I need to add in that it’ll plump it up to around 2500.

Takeaways:

I knew writing two books would be a challenge, but I really thought the tough part would be continuing to write after I hit my limit on one book. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I’m hopeful with the character stuff I figured out this week, I’ll be able to see how it all goes.

Writing two very distinct characters is hard. I want them to be unique and distinct and switching between the two is seriously difficult. But, I always like a challenge, so I’m not going to give up. I’ll post another update next week and let you know how it’s going.

Makeover

As you may or may not know (depending on when you came across my writing), I’ve never been crazy about ANY of the versions of the Shadow Phoenix covers. None of them really screamed “ROCK STAR” at me the way I wanted, but I had no idea how to make that happen.

Well, I need to overhaul the series for paperback now that I’ve figured out InDesign and how to make the insides pretty (I’m lookin’ at you, Captive) and since I need to put in the work to re-do the insides, I figured I might as well go balls out and just have them all re-edited (to make sure any of the stuff I missed the first time around has a whole new set of eyes on them to find things like the embarrassing way I used “symbols” when I really meant “cymbals”).

But then my husband says, “Do you think we should re-cover them, too?” and I was so not thinking about the covers, but then I looked at them and got this sort of splinter in my brain like I HAVE TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL WRONG (yes, I yelled it at myself).

So… I spent an entire day re-doing the covers, and honestly they’re my favorite of all the covers so far. I liked the black background ones, but again, they just didn’t give off the vibe I wanted. This new set totally does, and I’m really happy with them. I can’t promise I won’t put new covers on them again, but considering I’m going to be going through the process of turning them all into beautifully edited and designed paperbacks, it’s not happening again for a LONG while.

Besides, I have other stuff to spend my time working on like writing Chased or Crossed Souls (and also, I have like 4 other books plotted out loosely in my mind right now, too, as part of other series’). SO, if you were wondering why the covers suddenly look different on the website or on Amazon, the reason is I needed more rock star (said in my best Christopher Walken cowbell voice).

If you haven’t seen ‘em yet, take a peek:

Old Finding Zen Cover

New Finding Zen Cover

Old Loving True Cover

New Loving True Cover

What do you think of the new covers? You can check them all out over on the books page. Leave me a comment and let me know which covers are your favorite.

Two-Timing

Well, it’s official: I’ve lost my mind.

Yup, I’m about to dive into writing two books at the same time.

I mentioned it in one of my recent blog posts, but even then I wasn’t 100% sure I was going to do it. Now, it’s official because I’ve fully plotted both stories and have the set up all finished.

I’ve talked before about how I plot my stories, but the part that comes after plotting is what I’m going to talk about today. Once I do my general plot, I dig down into the details—both of which I’ve gone into before. I do that part by hand so once that’s done, I enter it all back into my plotting program.

Finally, I go into Google Drive. This is where I store everything for writing my books. I create a Google Docs file for every chapter and then I name them and format them for my editor (this is a new development since I started with her for Captive, but she’s amazing!). So, everything’s written in Times New Roman because that’s just how I roll.

(Quick side note: I read a study once that said people who write in Comic Sans are more productive, but fuuuuck that. Comic Sans makes me want to rip my eyeballs out of my skull).

After the files are all formatted, I copy over all my scene details from my plotting program into the appropriate chapter. It looks like this when it’s all done and ready for me to write:

Once that’s done, I’m all set to write and I don’t stop until I’m done. I set myself daily goals (I’ve talked about it before, but in case you missed it, I aim to write 4,000 words a day in 500-word blocks) and I have a writing partner who keeps me accountable.

So, now that you’ve had a peek behind the curtain, I’m gonna change the subject real quick. See, I’m honestly HORRIBLE at keeping writing news to myself. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and promise books that end up not working out, but now that I’ve got everything set up and am ready to actually dive into these stories later today, I feel confident sharing just a little hint of what’s coming in that top secret project I’ve been talking about.

So, now you have a title for book one: Crossed Souls.

It’s not up for pre-order, but here’s a sneak peek of the story aesthetic and maybe a couple of plot hints.

There’s no release date or pre-order or anything yet, but do you have any guesses what the story might be about? Leave ‘em in the comments!

Plotting... to Take Over the World?

…cue maniacal laughter.

I’ve probably talked about it before, but there are two types of writers (and potentially more in the form of hybrids of the two types but we’ll ignore them for now): Plotters and Pantsers.

Now, “Pantsers” are the type of people who fly by the seat of their pants. Get it? Ha. Ha.

Anyway, they don’t plot. They just sit down and write and basically magic comes out (if it works like it’s supposed to).

While I’m pretty scattered and disorganized in every other aspect of my life, I can’t stand being that way when it comes to my writing. I have to plot until there’s nothing left to do but write or I feel like I’m going to go crazy.

Or sit in a corner and cry… not that that’s ever happened or anything.

Ahem.

So, with every book in the Shadow Phoenix series, I did my plotting a little bit differently trying to figure out what worked best for me and what level of planning I actually needed to do in order to pull off the story.

As it turns out, I didn’t find the answer until I wrote “Captive,” and the answer is I need to plot EVERYTHING.

Every. Damn. Thing.

But it worked so well, that when I slacked off on my writing for Captive after telling myself I got off to a fast start and could take a few weeks off there in the middle, I was able to write, like, sixty thousand words in two weeks because of my plotting skillz.

Now that I’m about to dive into Chased, I’m not even trying to change up my plotting style at all (which is a relief to not have to think about what needs tweaking), and as of yesterday, the first step of the full plot is done. Behold:

This is a glimpse into what my plotting looks like for the book. (For those of you who also write, I use Plottr in dark mode because dark mode is liiiife). I separate the characters by color, and then I use one keyword to describe whatever scene is going to happen. I always aim for 4 scenes per chapter, but as I write, if a scene runs long I occasionally have to cut a future one down the line or expand it out into a whole new chapter.

Thankfully, that only happened twice during Captive and I was able to just cut the scenes rather than expand. Once I’m done with the keywords and a few minor details to describe each scene, I print it out and go through it scene by scene adding as much detail as I possibly can so that when I write, I can transfer over the scene notes and go from there.

It may sound complicated, but ideally it takes me less than a week (Captive took me three solid days) to do all the prep work on a book and then I can dive in and start writing. I’m really excited to give you Chased, and now that this step is finished, I can move on to the final plotting (details!) and then get writing. Let me tell you, this book is going to get your heart racing in more ways than one and I can’t wait to get started.

What Captive Taught Me

This whole writing journey started for me with a song and an idea to explore what it would be like to be a rock star and also finding love. At the start of my writing career, I had no idea about HOW to actually write. I mean, sure, you can sit down to your computer and just start typing, and a lot of authors make that work for them.

I am not one of those people.

When I wrote Zen, I wrote and re-wrote it three times before I finally published it, and even then, I did a massive re-write last summer because I hadn’t done any series planning and the way the other stories unfolded, and the way the characters came out, didn’t fit in with the way I’d originally written them.

Now that I’m on my 8th book (EEK!), I’ve got a whole lot more confidence in what I’m doing and how to do it. Captive, though, it’s the first book in a brand new series and before I started writing it, I decided to sit down for a sec and decide if there were things about the way I wrote the Shadow Phoenix series I wanted to change going into this one.

For example, I wrote all the books in SP in first person past tense. There are a lot of combinations for how to write a book, but when I was writing the first seven, I found myself jumping a lot between past and present tense and then having to go back and correct my mess ups. So, while it was outside of my comfort zone and a little scary, I decided the Hollywood Guardians series was going to be written in first person present tense.

It might seem like a subtle change, and you may not even notice the difference when you read it, but writing it has been really different for me and I’ve gotta say I think I like it. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it going forward or in future projects or not, but for this series it’s fun to push the limits on what I’m capable of.

Another thing I’ve learned writing this book is that I always knew I was a planner. I’m a plotter through and through and while every other book before this has had varying levels of plotting, Captive took it to a whole new level.

My process in the past has gone something like this:

• Get an idea for a book.

• Write down any other bits (conflict, characters, a specific trope) that are clear.

• Make an outline with vague things I want to happen (like “couple goes to lunch”).

• Break outline into chapters.

• Start writing.

While that’s at least something, the past three books I’ve written (from Jericho up to Harrison), I’ve had to spend a massive amount of time (and STRESS. Omfg, the stress) stopping somewhere in the middle of the book and re-plotting the second half because the story had gone off the rails. My outlines weren’t tight enough to keep the story on track, so things happened that I didn’t plan for and then the rest of the story wouldn’t make sense.

This time around, in an effort to streamline my writing process (because I’d really like to get my book out faster which means writing more every day), I decided to spend a solid three days before I ever wrote a word plotting all the tiny details of every scene. The places they go to eat (restaurant name), who they’re talking to, what they’re talking about, who’s interacting with who. All sorts of the nitty gritty details so I wouldn’t have to go do a ton of research in the middle of writing.

It was a lot of up front effort, but soooo worth it because my story has stayed perfectly on track this entire book. There’s been no re-plotting (well, aside from one tiny scene where Ronin needed to make an appearance that I hadn’t planned for, but it was no biggie to add it in to the existing story with zero extra plotting or accommodating) and I’m right where I should be.

Even after taking that mental health break right in the middle of writing this one where I didn’t write a word for about there weeks, I’m still right on schedule. Having everything plotted out for me ahead of time means that I’ve been able to write 52,000 words in the last 13 days to make sure Captive gets to you all as scheduled.

So, that’s a bit about my process in case you were curious, and I’m really excited to see how fast I can write Chased (Montana x Ronin’s story) using the same method.

My Creative Brain

Heeyyyy, lovely reader! The first book in my all-new Hollywood Guardians series, Captive (Connor's story) is still underway and on top of that, I've been working on something top secret, too... But right now I want to do something I'm not great at and let y'all in a bit.

See, I have crippling anxiety--the agoraphobia kind where it's hard for me to leave my house without a massive panic attack. Even going somewhere a mile down the road can be hard.

So, I've been quiet lately because I've been working on my mental health and my anxious (but super creative, so yay!) brain has a hard time balancing all the things you're "supposed" to do as an author.

Things like blog, post to Instagram, keep up with your group or your Facebook page. I'd even like to do TikTok... but just remembering and having the energy to write every day on top of all my anxiety program things (like journaling, meditating, yoga, breathing exercises and a whole host of other cognitive behavioral things I'm working on) is a big ask.

So, I will keep trying. I'll be kind and gentle with myself knowing that I'm doing my absolute best, and I hope that this is a reminder for you, too, to cut yourself some slack. We all tend to be so hard on ourselves, but at the end of the day we do the best we can and keep working toward being better.

I don't like to talk about my anxiety issues, but I figure if I can make even one person feel like they're not alone, I'm happy to do it.

Alllllll that being said... I'm so grateful for every single one of you here who's given my stories a chance and said kind words or gotten excited about something I've written. I love you all and I want you to know you make such a difference in my life, so thank you!

When I'm Stuck

Typically when I write a book, I aim to get a chapter done every day. Now, there are plenty of times that it doesn’t happen or that I do more than one in a day (more often, it not happening is what’s going down rather than me writing more, but it does happen from time to time).

I also outline my books before I start writing them, which means I generally know where a chapter’s going to go before I start writing it. Problems crop up when the story goes off the rails of the outline or I realize that the word count isn’t on target.

(I always aim to write at least 100k words per book, and Griffin has been my shortest so far at 105k).

With Tempting Harrison, I realized that with the number of chapters I have planned out and the word count of each chapter being what it is, I was going to fall short of my 100k goal. Now the struggle is how do I beef up the story without using anything that feels like filler?

The past four days, I’d been stuck on a chapter I added in. I thought I knew where it was going, but once I had written out the things I had in mind, I was about a thousand words short of where I needed to be. I’d been going crazy wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do, when finally I brought it up with a fellow writer friend of mine, Cathleen. (If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for Harrison, go check out her debut novel, Heart of Steel).

She made a couple of suggestions that got me thinking in a whole different direction than I was and bam! Unsutck, just like that. This morning, I finished the chapter and moved onto the next and the book is back underway.

So, in short, being stuck sucks but having peeps to bounce ideas off of is the best way to get un-stuck in my opinion. Also, this book (Tempting Harrison) is honestly my favorite of the series, which has been such a happy surprise. I can’t wait for you to read it!

British Heroes

So, right before I started writing Tempting Harrison, I was seriously kicking myself because what the hell was I thinking making him British? What do I know about writing a character who’s not even from my own country?

I seriously almost scrapped the whole thing while also trying to kick my own ass for putting myself in this situation (it works, I’ve got long legs).

But then I took a deep breath and did what I do best—I jumped right into massive amounts of research. And by research, I mean reading books other people have written that have British heroes and making a list of term equivalencies so I can be sure to use the proper dialect when Harrison opens his pretty mouth to speak.

Part of my list, if you can read it. Sorry about my handwriting but… it is what it is.

Surprisingly, it hasn’t been going too bad. I’m actually enjoying the challenge of writing the stuffy, arrogant Harrison. All I’m hoping at this point is that I’m not completely butchering his accent. You’ll get to find out come February. Oh, did I mention I pushed up the release date by a month?

Yep! Harrison will be hitting your Kindle on February 22, a whole month early.

Want a little sneak peek? Keep reading…

Harrison

“He hasn’t spoken to me in almost two weeks,” I protested, but Moon wasn’t having it. I eyed the emails piling up in my inbox and sighed, refocusing on where she sat in one of the chairs on the other side of my desk.

“It’s my birthday, Harrison. The one day where the birthday girl gets whatever she wants, and what I want most is you at my birthday party.” Her smile was devious like she knew I couldn’t refuse her. I especially couldn’t now that her husband was pissed off at me. If I upset Moon on her birthday, I doubted anyone would ever find my body.

“Really? That’s what you want most?” I cocked an eyebrow at her, and her smile turned devious as she nodded.

“You wouldn’t dream of letting me down, right?”

“Of course not.” I pulled up my calendar. “What time?”

“Tonight at eight. I’ll text you the name of the club once I decide, so keep your phone close.” We both knew my phone was practically a fifth limb, and I never went anywhere without it nearby.  

I nodded my agreement, and she stood, brushing off her clothes as she turned to leave. “Oh, your presence tonight will be gift enough, so please don’t worry about anything else.” She waved with her fingers and left my office. Despite the heaps of teasing she threw my way, I actually quite liked Moon. It was hard not to; she was so damn kind.

And if going tonight could get Jericho back on my good side? Even better.

Get to Know: Magnolia

Taming Griffin is upon us (eek, just 13 more days!) and now seems like a great time to introduce you to Magnolia Dawson, Griffin’s other (better!) half.

Magnolia’s fresh out of college, so she’s young like Griffin, and she’s already had a pretty rocky life. This book explores some dark subjects like domestic abuse, but I wouldn’t call the book itself dark. It’s more a redemption, a story of a girl finding herself and her happily ever after despite the circumstances she’s been through.

I’ve wanted to write a southern heroine for quite a while now but it wasn’t right for any of the stories so far until this one. Right off the bat, I knew Magnolia had to be from the south. I’ve lived in Texas a few times and there’s something about that part of the US that’s a little more welcoming, a little sweeter, and a little more relaxed and slower-paced that I love so much. But women from the south? They’ll be sugar-sweet to you while cutting your legs out from underneath you with their words and there’s something about that I love so much, I needed Magnolia to have that quality. Unfortunately, it’s been buried pretty deep, so she’s going to have to work to bring it back out.

Magnolia’s from Georgia, so she’s got that southern sass and a twang to match. She was raised by her grandmother (Grammy!) but spent most of her childhood lonely and without a lot of friends. She was determined to go to college because of a promise she made to her grandma, and that’s where she met her ex, Winston.

He plays a big part in this story, and in order to get the feelings and situations correct, I talked to a lot of women who’d gone through what I imagined Magnolia had been through, too. Since she met him, Winston’s always been a shadow hanging over her life, so this book will explore that in detail.

Our pretty southern heroine is in full-on survival mode in this book when we first meet her, but slowly she starts to open up and her journey from when we meet her to the end of the book is amazing to watch unfold. I can’t wait for you to read it. Griffin’s really the best, sweetest guy ever (even more than True—shockingly), and he’s there with her every step of the way.

All Magnolia’s ever wanted was a place to call home and a family to love since those aren’t really something she’s ever had the chance to have. You’re going to have to wait to read to find out if she gets them, but just for fun, here’s a little sneak peek:

Magnolia

My heart beat wildly in my chest because standing up to people and confrontation were basically my biggest fears, but I had to get over it if I was going to run this tour like it deserved. I couldn’t let her see my fear. “I’ll do no such thing. You’re going to pack up your stuff and get off my bus. I wasn’t notified you’d be traveling with us, so we don’t have room for you or him.”

She narrowed her eyes even further and I took a step back. I flinched and the triumph that flashed in her eyes made me hate what I’d become even more than I already did. I hated cowering when someone acted aggressively toward me, but I couldn’t help it. It was instinctual now. She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and smiled at me, though it was more teeth than anything. “Make me,” she challenged, and then her smile widened as she looked over my shoulder.

Wait until you see who she was confronting… and who’s over her shoulder. Are you excited for Taming Griffin?