1 Word Interview with Misha Gericke and Celebrations!

As a newish feature on my blog, I'm hosting a series of guests for "1 Word" Interviews! My hope is to highlight authors and bloggers in super short interviews that will give you a taste of their awesomeness and make you long for more. Then you can follow the links I'll provide and get to know them better through their blogs and books.

Please welcome Misha Gericke, author and blogger!

1. What's your current favorite word?

Agitation. 

 

2. In one word, what inspires you?

Everything

 

3. What's one word that describes your writing habits?

Eclectic

 

4. What's one word that you wish you could get rid of in your writing?

That

 

5. What's one word that describes your writing desk?

Unused. For writing, that is.

 

6. Share the best writing advice/tool/quote that helps you. (please limit to one sentence)

Allow yourself to write a sucky first draft.

 

7. What's your current project?

 

Well... This year it's not so much that I have one current project. I'm trying to finish five by next year, so I'm working on more than one: 

 

The sequel to my epic fantasy. 

A high concept urban fantasy

A western

A paranormal dystopian

Spies

Pirates 

And Time Travel. 

 

Seems like I cater to a wide audience.

It seems like you do, Misha!

If you haven't visited her blogs, I highly recommend them. Misha is encouraging, honest, and thoughtful.
Her first book, The Vanished Knight just came out, and she'll be back for a guest post in a few weeks for her book blog tour. Check it out:

Since the death of her parents, Callan Blair has been shunted from one foster family to another, her dangerous secret forcing the move each time. Her latest foster family quickly ships her off to an exclusive boarding school in the Cumbrian countryside. While her foster-brother James makes it his mission to get Callan expelled, a nearby ancient castle holds the secret doorway to another land...

 

When Callan is forced through the doorway, she finds herself in the magical continent of Tardith, where she’s shocked to learn her schoolmates Gawain and Darrion are respected soldiers in service to the king of Nordaine, one of Tardith's realms. More than that, the two are potential heirs to the Black Knight—Nordaine's crown prince.

 

But when the Black Knight fails to return from a mysterious trip, the realm teeters on the brink of war. Darrion and Gawain set out to find him, while Callan discovers there is more to her family history than she thought. The elves are claiming she is their princess.

 

Now with Darrion growing ever more antagonistic and her friendship with Gawain blossoming, Callan must decide whether to stay in Nordaine—where her secret grows ever more threatening—or go to the elves and uncover the truth about her family before war sets the realms afire.

 
Bio
M. Gerrick (AKA Misha Gericke) has basically created stories since before she could write. Many of those stories grew up with her and can be seen in her current projects.
She lives close to Cape Town, with a view over False Bay and Table Mountain.
If you’d like to contact her, feel free to mail her at warofsixcrowns(AT)gmail(DOT)com, Circle her on Google Plus or follow her on Twitter. If you'd like to see her writer-side (beware, it's pretty insane), please feel free to check out her blog. 
Links: 
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
All Romance Reads
Goodreads

I love to Celebrate the Small Things with Viklit and the Celebration crew, so here are my celebrations for the week:

1. Had a tiny, but great, Writers' Workshop on Tuesday night.
2. Emily Ann Benedict gifted me with a preview copy of her newest cozy Christmas novel, The Father Christmas Profession, and I read it in less than 24 hours - it was sweet and wonderful. I highly recommend it!
3. My niece's wedding is tomorrow, and I've got the ceremony ready and the speech written . . . although I might tweak it a bit more.

What are you celebrating this week?

Now, go visit Misha at her site and get to know her better!

 

Please come visit at Stardust and Gravel!

Sarah Scheele at Stardust and Gravel interviewed me recently, and the post is up. There's even a giveaway!

1 Word Interview with Julie Flanders, Guest Post, and Celebrations

As a newish feature on my blog, I'm hosting a series of guests for "1 Word" Interviews! My hope is to highlight authors and bloggers in super short interviews that will give you a taste of their awesomeness and make you long for more. Then you can follow the links I'll provide and get to know them better through their blogs and books.

Please give a warm welcome to the latest 1 Word Interview participant, Julie Flanders, author and blogger!

1. What's your current favorite word? Aquinnah

2. In one word, what inspires you? Courage

3. What's one word that describes your writing habits? Lazy

4. What's one word that you wish you could get rid of in your writing? Just

5. What's one word that describes your writing desk? Couch

6. Share the best writing advice/tool/quote that helps you. (please limit to one sentence)

“you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”- Stephen King

 

7. What's your current project?

 I am working on getting my novel The Ghosts of Aquinnah ready for publication. It will be released in December of this year.

I'm excited to read The Ghosts of Aquinnah after reading so much about the setting and characters on Julie's blog! She's done some serious research. And I love that writing advice and the writing desk as couch! Please visit Julie, and check out her goodreads and amazon pages!

 

Many thanks to Viklit for hosting this celebration of small things! Every little positive adds up to a grand celebration worthy of fireworks!

 

My niece asked me to marry her - as in, officiate the wedding ceremony! I'm honored, even if I wasn't first on the list (It's only a week away at this point and she just asked me). After prayer, Biblical study, an e-mail exchange with my Pastor, advice from my Pastor, advice from a friend, a bit of research, and a lot of rough draft writing, I think I'm mentally ready - although the "speech" is far from done yet. Pray for me, please, especially on October 26th.

 

 

And I've been interviewed at Stardust and Gravel by Sarah Scheele! Come check it out and enter to win a free copy of Champion in the Darkness or Dragonfold and Other Adventures! 

 

 

Celebrate the Small Things

Many thanks to Viklit for hosting this weekly fest!!!!

Today I'm celebrating:

1. The continuance of life while I have a cold. It's tough for me to keep up with everything, but yet, it's wonderful to have such energy in my household. My oldest ran 2 miles at a Twilight x-country race in sixteen minutes and thirty seconds. (She's getting over a cold and didn't push herself, or even sprint at the end, but she had fun running.) My youngest got purple braces on her upper teeth yesterday. (And our new dog had a "special" surgery that made him unhappy, but in the long run will free him up to go to dog parks, and not leave me worried about adding to the humane society population.)
And there's more stuff going on: a wedding for one of our nieces in two weeks, another niece engaged, and one of my sister-in-laws is returning from a six month working vacation at Yellowstone National Park. Life is good, even while I'm sneezing.

2. I had some good revision writing days this week. I'll probably limit my blog days to 1-2 days a week from now until I get Champion in Flight totally finished.

3. Awesome blogger buddies.

4. M Pax's newest book, Backworlds IV, is out!!! Here's an excerpt:

“I know.” Dactyl spoke so softly, Rainly had to amp up her cybernetic hearing. “I grew up on Howper Tertiary. My father, a veteran of the Fo’wo war, wasted away from a plague. Everyday we did this dance: he begging me to kill him, me trying but failing. Then I had to deal with his agony, the crying and moaning from enduring an excruciatingly slow death. It tore me to pieces. Everyday. I loved him, so couldn’t kill him. I loved him, so wanted to end his misery. On this weakness, Quasser preyed. He recruited me, promising an end to the cycle of my despair-filled life, ‘n I served him willingly, with glee.”

Glee? Of all the things she had suspected, she hadn’t imagined that. How had she end up with someone so like the man who had owned her and beat her? She couldn’t trust her judgment any longer, and Rainly swallowed past the threatening tears. “They kill people. Did you? Did you kill people?”

“Yes.”

His answer landed like a punch. Yes. In one syllable he became a stranger. “’N you liked it?”

“I’ve spent all my hours atoning for it since.”

That part she knew. She gazed at her friends, noting their shock matched hers. She found some comfort in not being the only one deceived.

Deceived. Betrayed. None of those things should happen. Not with Dactyl. Not with anyone she called friend. Who else kept such awful secrets? She squinted at her guests one by one.

 

M. Pax-- Inspiring the words she writes, she spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the Husband Unit and two demanding cats. She writes science fiction and fantasy mostly. You can find out more by visiting her at:

 

Website / FB / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / Wattpad

 

 

Some truths are better left unfound.

For two years Craze’s dear friend, Lepsi, has been missing. The murmurings of a haunted spaceship might be a message and may mean his old pal isn’t dead. The possibility spurs Craze and Captain Talos to travel to uncharted worlds, searching. Out there, in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy beyond the Backworlds, they stumble upon a terrible truth.

Meanwhile, Rainly remains on Pardeep Station as acting planetlord, dealing with the discovery of her lover’s dark and brutal past. Alone and questioning her judgment, her introspection unlocks more than heartache. Latent protocols in her cybernetics activate, forcing her to face a sinister secret of her own.

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe. This is the fourth book in the science fiction series, The Backworlds. A space opera adventure.

Amazon / AmazonUK / Nook / Smashwords / Kobo / Other Outlets

 

 

 

I'll Be Back!

I have to say first and foremost, that I am very thankful for all of you who have encouraged me - especially when I've needed it the most - like just last Wednesday.

THANK YOU!!!!!

I feel much better thanks to all of you!

(Plus the doc gave me a new prescription for my hypothyroid syndrome, which helps too.)

I am taking a short break from posting until the 11th. I might be visiting around to catch up a bit, but otherwise I'm in a major creativity and revision cave: I'm giving myself some creativity time, and I'm re-starting my revision on Champion in Flight - call it draft #3, which I'm totally excited about.

Again, many thanks to all of you for giving me sound advice about taking a step back. I actually had to run errands all day on Thursday and somehow that gave me perspective on the giant piles of "to-do's" at home.

Upcoming events (just here): Celebrate the Small Things (next week), Interviews with Julie Flanders and Misha Gericke, and I'll be visiting Stardust and Gravel on the 18th as well.

IWSG: Overwhelmed

This month for insecure writer's support group, I realized I had a big topic, a huge, colossal, giant of an insecurity/problem that I could share.

I feel overwhelmed.

My novel revision feels like it's gone off the tracks, and I need a crane or maybe a wrecking ball to fix it.

My journal entry yesterday consisted of stuff like this: I managed to make four phone calls, fold laundry, grade three assignments, plan half of a lesson, and write four e-mails, but I still have four phone calls, three loads of laundry, 25 assignments to grade, 2 and 1/2 lessons to plan, and multiple e-mails just waiting for me.

My husband is sick with the flu, and my kids and I are too. Plus, my hypothyroid medicine isn't working right, and I meet with the doctor tomorrow to figure it out, and tomorrow just isn't coming soon enough.

I've been forgetting things.

I've been losing things. (like my mind, maybe?)

In short, I feel overwhelmed.

On Monday, I started making lists. On Tuesday, my list felt ginormous. It's Wednesday, and today's list doesn't seem smaller.

However, the lists help. It seems like the only thing I can do to manage the mountain of stuff that needs to get done. And I need to manage it so I have time to write, even if my second novel currently needs a wrecking ball.

So, have you ever felt overwhelmed? Ever felt the need for a wall sized list? Or the need for a wrecking ball revision experience?

Many thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting IWSG, and encouraging writers everywhere!

News and Guest Post: Nick Wilford

Nick Wilford's Thoughts on Editing and His New Editing Service

 

With the rise and rise of self-publishing, it’s easier than ever to put your words and stories out there in the world. This is a great thing, and I’m all for it. However, it’s not just about the story - although of course, that is the most important part - but the way it’s presented. Don’t you want your baby to look its best before sending it out to seek its fortune? You wouldn’t spend months or years worldbuilding and honing your characters and storylines to be let down by a lack of editing. It’s just as important as an arresting cover image.

 

Nick Wilford, Freelance Editor is a one-stop shop for affordable editing, proofreading and formatting services. With professional training as a journalist and editor, the time has come to transfer these skills in order to help out the fellow authors I have come to love.

 But it doesn’t stop there. I’m ready to edit anything, from a crucial term paper you have due in, to a memoir or non-fiction work. Let me put that finishing touch on your masterpiece.

Feel free to take a look at my website for further details of my services and prices.

 Bio

 Nick Wilford is a writer, freelance editor and stay-at-home dad. Fascinated by words from a young age, he trained as a journalist before embracing the calling of fiction. When not writing he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also co-running a campaign to get a dedicated specialist college built in Scotland.

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