For those of you who weren't aware, Craving Beauty went live on July 14th! To help celebrate and spread the word about my new release, I partnered with Lola's Blog Tours for a fantastical tour. Our tour spanned over two weeks, full of reviews, guest posts by yours truly, and an aweseom giveaway. A thousand thanks to... Continue Reading →
It's release day but it's also my birthday! Yep, I did a silly thing and thought what better present to myself than to share my latest book baby with the world. But it's not just Craving Beauty's birthday, and it's not just mine. Once upon a time, it was my grandma's too.
“The Wylder Mountains are cursed, Beauty,” the beggar said with a harsh rasp. “and your kin could not leave of their own free will. I promised to find you, to tell you they yet live.”
Vynasha rocked with him beneath the barn overhang, within the snowdrifts, and whispered against his skin. She uttered forbidden words her mother had whispered to her deep in the night, in that strange musical tongue Vynasha had half forgotten. She remembered it now as the darkness stirred beneath her skin. “We must be careful, my starling,” Mother had made her promise. “Be oh, so careful. To give life, we must always sacrifice.” The little body in her arms did not grow cold as it should have. It shuddered against her in spasms. Vynasha squeezed her eyes tightly shut as the little hands clenched her arms in a tight grasp. Wyll sucked in a hoarse gasp as he breathed new life. The little boy whimpered and then spoke as though back from a long sleep, “Asha?”
Vynasha ignored the way the snow soaked through her house slippers. She’d forgotten her boots and her coat. But the darkness still clawed at her skin, begging to be set free. She didn’t dare turn back.
The best advice I can offer you is to not be your worst enemy. You’ll always find someone out there who is better (or more experienced) than you are. But when you focus too much on how much better someone else seems to be or be doing, it’s way too easy to lose sight of your progress. Remember, if you’re writing, you’re constantly growing your craft. It won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time, hard work, and little thanks in the beginning (sometimes longer).
It's been a while since I wrote about writing. Probably because I've had something of a love/hate relationship with my passion for the past year. The older I get, the harder it becomes to simply throw myself into a story the way I did pre-kid and pre-adulting. I can no longer blindly write into the night. If I want to get anything accomplished in any of my current projects, it needs to become habit.
About a month before watching Cathy Hay's video, I pulled out my high school journals "for research." I've had an idea for a YA novel/novella series for some time, but I wanted to step back into the shoes of Fifteen. Boy, did my journals deliver.
It's hard writing into the void sometimes. With traditional and original fiction, you often write something that people may or not read. Then they may or may not leave a review. If they bother leaving a review (this is not counting book bloggers btw) that's either because they loved your story, or they hated it. The average G.I. Jane doesn't review unless your story moved them to a strong feeling.
When you write, you tend to spend a lot of time in your head, and it’s easy to become discouraged and disheartened. It’s even easier to fall into a pit that doesn’t seem to have a way out.
Jennifer Silverwood 