Corruption Blog Tour Sign-up

Wow, only a few weeks until Christmas - how did that happen? It seems like the holiday season is in full swing, especially for my American friends. If you celebrated Thanksgiving last week, I hope you enjoyed it and didn't get too wiped out by the sales!

And in this time of goodwill to all, I once again humbly call on your help, this time with the blog tour for part two, entitled Corruption, of my dystopian trilogy. I couldn't imagine not doing a blog tour for one of my releases - although times change and platforms come and go, I think it's the most fun promotional tool for a book launch and the one that allows for the most engagement, allowing readers a sneak peek at what makes those characters tick. It's a little while off, with the release date on February 11th, but I know that calendars can fill up quickly. If you'd like to help, just fill in the handy form down there.

I'm also holding a cover reveal on December 17th, which will be a double header as I've also given the first instalment, Black & White, a makeover. You can choose to host both or just the latest book's, as you wish.

Thank you kindly, and have a great week!

Starting Afresh

How's everyone going? I thought I'd drop in as part of my effort to get back to more regular blogging. For a while I've only been posting monthly for IWSG, which I really enjoy, and I miss posting more frequently. I've been fairly inactive in terms of writing for a while - editing, that's another story, as I wrangle with the knots and plotholes of my trilogy. Book 2 is finally on the way, with more news on that to follow. But today I'm infused with the joy of starting something new. It's unfamiliar territory for me - first person, female protagonist - but this character's been nagging at me for a while, in a quietly insistent way, wanting her story to be heard. So finally, I capitulated. Only just started, but it's fun. I'm finding that first person allows me to explore that character's inner life and world in much more depth. It's good to push the boat out and try something different. Not counting sequels, this is the first time I've started work on a new full-length story for over four years, and it's refreshing to go back to a completely clean slate.

In other news, inevitably we're starting to gear up for the festive period with all the planning that entails, and we're also putting our house in order so it's nice for Christmas - painting, tiling, decorating. Got a pretty busy time coming up, but it's all good stuff.

Well, that's it for now. What are you up to? Already planning for the festive season? What are your thoughts on writing in first person?

IWSG November 2018

Time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, headed as ever by the mercurial Alex J. Cavanaugh. It's a safe space where we can share our writing insecurities and fears among like-minded peers. Why not join if you haven't yet?

The co-hosts for the November 2018 meeting are Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Ann V. Friend, JQ Rose and Elizabeth Seckman.

I could post about being insecure over putting back my current publication plans to next year, but the truth is, I've long since learned to roll with the punches that life can throw at us. In this case, the incident was my fault, so I can't get cut up anyway, and if you saw my post last month, I'd like to reassure you that my furry friend is back to his old self again, albeit with a truncated tail. So let's turn our attention to the more positive matter of this month's IWSG question, which is a lovely one actually: "How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?"

This is an interesting one because I haven't really taken up any other creative hobbies, although recently, some lines of poetry popped into my head and I felt moved to write them down. Not anything that I intended to do, but it was during a period of inactivity with writing, so maybe there's something in the idea that creativity always wants to work its way out in one form or another. As for the quality, that's another matter; I tend to think anything I do in that area is terrible (I once tried to write songs, which featured some truly shocking lyrics), but who knows, I might try to do more and see where it goes, even if no one else sees them.

In IWSG news, the next Twitter pitch event is in January. Another exciting opportunity to get noticed by editors and agents. Don't miss it!

And for our new partnership with WEP (Write Edit Publish), we're hosting a competition to decide the theme for the February contest. 

Rules: Submit your idea for a WEP February theme by November 12 to admin AT insecurewriterssupportgroup.com. Nothing too U.S. culturally bound. Should have wide appeal.

Prize: Feature in the December newsletter for the winner. And, of course, the winning theme will be the official February WEP theme!

Deadline: November 12. Winner announced in the November newsletter on November 28. 

What do you think of this month's question? Are you taking part in IWSG? Interested in the Twitter pitch or WEP? Find the full list of participants here.