Hello. My name is Everyn and I'm an Edit-o-holic

Hello. My name is Everyn and I'm an Edit-o-holic. I know this is a serious problem and something I need to work on, but I can't seem to stop revising Crow, and I'm starting to worry that if I don't curb my addiction, the book will never get finished.

I read through the printed first draft last week, which I enjoyed, mostly because I got to experience the story like a normal reader would. Afterwards, I went to work chopping and re-writing. I completely re-wrote the first chapter, which I am mostly happy with. I'm probably about a third of the way through the novel so far and it seems to be coming out fairly polished. My husband has been tweaking the front cover, which is almost complete as well, and then we'll get to work on the back cover for the print edition.

In an effort to do my editing in a professional manner, I started watching youtube videos by freelance editors for advice - BIG MISTAKE! I came away feeling dejected, unworthy and stupid... one girl looked like she was fresh out of college (or maybe even still in college) and was talking about "amateur writer" mistakes and what the big publishing companies see as noobie writing. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know and instead I was left annoyed and put off. My husband reminded me of how great the story is and that the editing I've done has made it even better. End rant....

Back to the point - the editing is moving along and despite a moment of temporary insanity, I'm very pleased with it. So pleased, in fact, that I've decided to put the first chapter of the book on Wattpad a week early. I'll be using the unfinished cover for the time being (since it has everything it needs, I'm just being a pain in the ass and making him add things muhahahahaha!)

Here's the link to the Wattpad version: Crow Book One

I will be posting one chapter per week on Sunday mornings, the final chapter will go up the week before Book Two is scheduled to be published.

Happy Reading!

Busy, busy Me...

I'd like to wish everyone reading a Happy Easter. I'm getting ready to dye some eggs with my little munchkins and stuff my face with a Cadbury Egg, but first, I wanted to update you all on the progress of Crow Book 1.

My printer is still being a stubborn asshole, so I printed out the first draft of Crow from work on Thursday and have started marking edits on my train commute. The book is a whole lot longer than I had expected - coming out at 195 pages printed. I spent most of Wednesday last week setting up my schedule for the next six weeks in order to get the book published on my deadline. Looking at it like that, the whole process felt overwhelming and very real - making it visually clear just how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it all. I immediately felt both apprehensive and excited.

I'm going to attempt to get the first round of editing done by the end of this week before sending it off to the few people I know who can act as "beta readers" then tackling the next set of edits. I've been harassing my husband daily to finish the book cover.

All of the rush in the next two weeks is because I'm going to start posting chapters to Wattpad prior to the book being published in the hopes to gain some readers beforehand. I'll only be posting the first book in the series to Wattpad, but it means you'll be be able to start reading the book a few weeks before it gets officially published (though you should still buy a copy when it comes out *wink wink nudge nudge*)

When edits are finished, I'll be knee-deep in formatting for the various platforms it will get published in - including print. I'm going to try and have the print run come out the same time as the ebook, but it means a lot of extra work. I'm going to try, but I'm not going to promise anything. I also need to finish setting up the Crow Series website so that I can start posting excerpts and extra info about the books for all of you... trying to get you guys as excited about it as I am!

Well, I have a mountain of work to get started on - if anyone needs me, I'll be shackled to my laptop for the next few weeks.

Until next time,

Crow First Draft = Finished!

The first draft of Crow Book One is now complete and clocking in at approximately 51,250 words.

My daughter's 3rd birthday week is over - the fun, craziness and cake is past us, so I'm now preparing to start revisions. My only obstacle right now is my stupid newfangled printer which is stubbornly insisting I need to put in new color ink even though I only need to print in black but I'll sort that out in time. I'm currently scanning through the manuscript and marking things that I know need to be changed, parts that are inconsistent and chapters that I know will need a full overhaul.

I'm also putting together my ideas and outline for the second book in the series, as well as creating a subpage on the blog just for the Crow Series which is pretty much like building a whole new webpage and is taking a great deal of time and effort including images etc. Once the new page is finished I will be posting excerpts and info about the series in the next month and a half before the book is scheduled to publish. (As of February 2015 - The Crow Series webpage has been merged with the main blog after I had to move the website to a new format. Any links to the old website will no longer work.)

Now that I've glued my editing eyes in, I've still got a great deal of work to tackle. Editing and re-writing is a whole different beastie than the creative free-flow of writing the first draft. I sincerely hope you all enjoy what I've created and grow to love the characters and world that have flourished inside my head for the past two months as much as I have. I'm excited to get it finished and get started on the next one.

Thanks for reading,

Crow Book One - Cover Reveal

If you haven't seen it yet, this is the finished cover for Crow. The cover art was done by Tom McGill.

Crow is the first book in a four part urban fantasy / paranormal series set in New York City.

The blurb:

No one can be trusted.

Someone or something is stalking Denora.

After learning that her best friend has died, Denora thinks things can’t get much worse. She’s already lost her parents, leaving her and her brothers to fend for themselves. Then her brothers disappear without a trace - all three of them.

When she meets Silas, he seems to have all the answers, but for every truth he reveals there are even more secrets that he keeps. He introduces her to a hidden world of cryptic premonitions and deadly curses thriving in the underbelly of the city she thought she knew.

Can Denora trust this alluring stranger and unravel the truth to save her brothers?

Children vs. Laptop: Round 2

That's right - they did it again.

I got up with the baby at 5am on Sunday, eager to get to work on the last two chapters of Crow before my daughter woke up.

I made a fresh pot of coffee and turned Scarlet on.

At this point, my son started to squeal - or I should say, his new form of communication is more akin to high-pitched squeal/screaming and it's so loud you can hear him all the way on the first floor of my apartment building. Coffee cup in hand, I rush to pick him up so he'll stop before he wakes his sister up (and everyone else in the building, because it's 5am on a Sunday and most people are still sleeping).

I sit down on my couch and the baby decides he wants my coffee cup - proceeding to grab the handle and try to yank it from my hands. In order to keep scalding hot coffee from spilling all over my child, I hold firm to the cup and try to pry his little fingers off. Instead, he suddenly lets go and the piping hot coffee flies backwards and lands all over the keyboard of my laptop.

Shit. Holy fucking shit.

I unplugged the laptop, took out the battery and dried it off as best I could. The display flicked off within seconds of the coffee spill and I'm thinking, "Fucking hell, I've barely had this computer for a month and they've already destroyed it. I can't afford to replace it again. I'm so screwed."

I cleaned it off to the best of my ability and propped it up to dry in front of a fan for the next 36 hours.

I then proceed to stress-clean my entire apartment in the next two days.  Once again, as soon as I start feeling like I'm attaining a modicum of success, about to finish the first draft of a book and meet my deadline, and my children find a way to sabotage me. I'm scrubbing out bottles and thinking, "Maybe I'm not meant to write a book. Maybe this is the universe's way of stopping me. Maybe my book will destroy the world and there is a vast conspiracy to thwart me."

Yeah - I want to scream, and cry and bash my face into a wall. I feel like I'm losing my mind.


Yesterday evening, I finally got up the courage to turn the machine back on. It booted up and took me to the login screen.

"This is great! Maybe it's not as bad as I thought!"

The desktop loads a black screen and a spinning mouse icon.

I spent all of last night backing up files, then did a System Restore - nothing. I plugged it in to the tv monitor we use for my husband's gaming PC to check the display - also nothing. I tried various resets and tips I found online - still no luck.

On a fluke, I logged in the Guest User and THERE WAS THE DESKTOP! WHOOOOHOOOO!!!!

It turns out there was some sort of corruption to the user account when it crashed. I deleted the user and made a new one. Issue resolved. Computer working.

Whew! Dodged a bullet.

Now I have to spend my morning re-installing programs and replacing files. I didn't get my book finished by the end of the month, but that's okay. The computer isn't an over-sized paperweight like the last one. That's good enough for me. I'm still only two chapters away from finishing the first draft. Once I get Scarlet working properly I'm going back to work.

Round One: Reckless Whirlwind Toddler is the Winner.

Round Two: Scarlet withstands the beating and stands as Champion.