Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links

Ciao, amici! How was your week? If you read my Tuesday post, you know I had a release—one I wasn’t expecting and had to hurry to prepare for (The Scout). But that actually wasn’t my biggest accomplishment in the last seven days.

That honor goes to Astral Conspiracy Series Book Two. (I’ll be revealing the title and cover in a month or two, so stay tuned for that.) I wrapped up the final edits on ACS2 yesterday afternoon. (Pop the bubbly!) It’s now in pre-production, getting formatted and having blurbs written and marketing materials prepared. Yesterday was a huge weight off my shoulders.

You’d think, as an editor, I’d find revisions easy. This final one was. My editor suggested few corrections. Mostly word echoes and clunky constructions (and one sentence that neither of us could even figure out what I meant—oops!). But it was that second revision that nearly drove me to drink. And not celebratory champagne, but the hard stuff to drown my sorrows. Which brings me to today’s quote by an unknown author.

That second draft will not kill you.
It may kill some of your characters.
(Odds of this happening go up exponentially
if you write murder mysteries.)
But it will absolutely, positively, pinky swear
not kill you.

I’ll admit, there were times I thought that draft would do me in. I may have shed a frustrated tear at three in the morning. I know I ate more chocolate than I should have. (Too bad I didn’t have chocolate covered coffee beans—on second thought, maybe that’s a good thing.) And I definitely will NEVER again write out of sequence then rearrange scenes later. (You people who do that are insane. And I am in awe of your ability to do it.)

That second revision did not kill me. My final edit was a breeze, and it’s over. Now, happily, I’m well into Astral Conspiracy Series 3. And boy, do I have surprises in store for my readers!

I hope you had an easy week. If you want to share your writing, revising, polishing stories with us, we’d love to hear them.

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And now, this week’s writing links:

Posts by me, about my work, or at sites I contribute to:

Me

• Aliens Are Coming  (The Gate guest post) | Writing Musing
• A Surprise Release 
• Book Review: The Scout | Harmony Kent

Story Empire

• When Are You Most Creative? | Mae Clair
• A Word About Research | Me
• Friday Book Cover: Old Bones by Preston and Child | Mae Clair

Posts by others in the industry:

• Bestseller Case Study | Goodreads
• Why You Need to Market Your Book Before Publishing | Ari Meghlen
• Relevance of Facebook Infographic | Nicholas C. Rossis
• 10 Writing Tips | Shelley Wilson 
• The Breakout Novel | Kristen Lamb
• Story Breadcrumbs | Fiction University
• Tips for Writing Single Fathers | Legends of Windemere
• Examples of Ways to Describe Weather | Word Dreams
• Why Book Blurbs are Crucial to Book Success | Kobo Writing Life
• Securing Reviews | Jane Friedman
• Magic Systems and World-Building | Writers Helping Writers
• Free Writing | Standout Books
• Story Stakes | The Kill Zone
• Short Story Idea Generation | Writer’s Relief

To make you smile:

• Cats Being Weird | Smorgasbord
• Laughter Lines | Smorgasbord
• Can’t Brain Today; Have the Dumb | Bluebird of Bitterness
• Friday Fun | The Storyreading Ape
• Labels | Bluebird of Bitterness
• Let’s Hear It for the Dogs | Smorgasbord
• Bird Puns | Bluebird of Bitterness
• Lucy and Twiggy Outside | John W. Howell

And when you’re done with these links, don’t forget to check out the sidebar, where you’ll find more links to some of my favorite sites.

Have a great weekend! Arrivederci!