How My Endings Have Changed

Hi all!

This week I thought I would talk about my book endings. As my mental state has improved, I've found that my book endings have changed a lot. They've gone from really dark endings to some lighter ones, or even ones where there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Celestial Plague.

This series would have ended with book three, with Jenna getting away with her crimes. With the release of book four, I wanted her to receive some comeuppance for her actions. I think turning into the very thing she hates is good enough for her. Plus, her friends are freed of their disease and are able to live forever. It's a much lighter one than the one I had originally planned with book three.

Street Rats.

As I'm sure you've heard, this book was written during an especially dark time of my life. I was getting bullied at work and was taking on more than I could handle. But whenever I complained, it was thrown back in my face that I was bring ungrateful. That's why the original ending of this book was depressing. The main character, Hailey, had been abandoned by all her friends and was left all alone. Her parents turned their backs on her and a few antagonists from earlier in the book appear to make her life hell again. Thankfully by the time it came to me writing the ending I felt much better so it's a lot lighter.

Mute.

This book was originally going to end with Audra killing the wendigo and getting caught by the police. She would be framed by the surviving characters and left in prison. There, her mother, who had turned into a wendigo, would break into her cell to kill her. Luckily I had the idea of resurrecting Solaris and having him bring his sister to the rescue. Even though her mother is left in the police station, Audra walks away with a chance.

Those are my darkest endings so far without spoiling too much about books that haven't come out yet. From now on, I'm going to write the endings that feel right rather than going off my mental state. My writing gets darker the more down I feel and I don't want that to keep happening.

That's it for this week, see you next week! 

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Kindle Unlimited Horror Bookfest!

The Rotten Sarjs

Hi all!

With Celestial Plague #4: Hell coming out soon I thought I would discuss the new type of Sarj that shows up in this book.

In previous books there have been three types: purple, blue and black. The colour a person will turn into depends on the way they were infected. If they complete the seven bite trial, they turn into a purple Sarj. If they are bitten by a Sarj, no matter how far along their infection, they will turn into a blue Sarj. Finally, if they are touched by the creator of the virus, they will turn into a black Sarj.

Hell introduces a brand new Sarj: grey. If you haven't guessed already by the title, this Sarj colour is influenced by The Rot. Even though Sarjs are technically not dead, they can still be effected by The Rot. It spreads through their body through the first point of contact and gradually turns their skin a pale grey. Once they've completed this transformation, they can then infect humans and Sarjs alike. The Rot damages their mind so they're incredibly aggressive and willing to infect anyone they come across.

As Jenna and her group will be traversing The Rot in this book, she will come across quite a few of these Sarjs. They are the most dangerous of all as without the creator, the other Sarjs aren't interested in infecting anyone new. Most other colour Sarjs will stay away from humans and live out their lives travelling and playing. But the rotten ones will forever roam the Earth unless they are put out of their misery.

I'm excited to release the final book in the Celestial Plague series and I love the ending of this series. I might continue to write short stories about Sarjs in the future if the right inspiration hits! I can't wait for you to read this book and finish the journey with Shannon, Ashleigh, Raya and Jenna.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these fantasy bundles before they disappear!

Epic Fantasy Spring Giveaway

Fantastic Fantasy

April 2024 Camp NaNoWriMo Project Announcement

Hi all,

It's a new year and the first Camp NaNoWriMo of 2024 starts on April 1st. I was going to start writing the next book in the Original Elementals series but I've really missed the characters in Empty Skies. So, I'm going to pivot to writing Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations.

This book will continue where book one left off, with Laelaps and Ataraxia. They've just defeated Scylla and are hoping for a bit of a rest before their next challenge. Unfortunately, that doesn't really pan out for them!

This book will have more scenes in the underworld and Cerberus will have a more active role. In the last book, they were there for the battle but that was about it. Now, their home is in danger and they need help to save it. The Namean Lion, Ichor, will be in this book with Charon, the boatman of the dead.

I'm also going to introduce a few more of the constellations in this book. One being Pegasus. They are one of my favourites and I'm hoping to give them a dark spin. They are working with The Freezing to take down all the constellations. I love writing pegasi as bad guys so I can't wait to continue with this book!

I have the prequel series planned which will introduce more characters and why they act the way they do in these books. But I really wanted to write this series first, even though Damaged Goods has been planned for ages. It gives me more time to flesh out events in between though. Some of the characters in this book will appear more often in the prequel series, so I hope you like them enough to continue reading about them.

This is my first Greek mythology series and I'm really excited to write the series which is why I've bumped it up a bit. I'm still undecided whether next NaNoWriMo I'll write Original Elementals or not. Luckily I still have loads of time to decide.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these fantasy book bundles before you go:

Epic Fantasy Spring Giveaway

Fantastic Fantasy

My 2024 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As promised, here are my goals for 2024!

Write three books.

I would like to write the first drafts of the following books in 2024:

Original Elementals #8: Turf

Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations

Original Elementals #9: Arcturus

Publish two books.

I’m planning on publising Celestial Plague #4: Hell in April and Curse of Anubis #1 in October.

Re-name the Curse of Anubis books.

While I do like the names they currently have, I think I can do better. I’ve been looking at shorter, snappier titles and also longer ones. I don’t want to publish them with the titles they currently have.

Get two covers deisgned.

The first two books in the Curse of Anubis series will have covers by the end of the year. They will be designed by Deranged Doctor Design, as always.

Self-edit two books in the Curse of Anubis series.

I think I’ve been too hard on myself with self-editing in the past so this time I’m going to cut myself some slack. Editing two books myself is acheivable and I won’t be pushing myself too hard to get it done either.

Finish the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection and make it available to my subscribers.

I’m planning on getting this enovella finished this year and I want to make it available to my newsletter subscribers before October.

Read 100 books.

I love reading and seeing as I blew my goal out of the water last year I thought I would increase it!

Work on my book sales.

I’d love to be able to publish more books, but in order to do that I need to sell more. I’m going to be tweaking a lot of my books descriptions, blurbs and categories to hopefully get more eyes on them. I want to continue publishing in the future and would like to increase the amount of books I’m able to publish in a year.

Create a Patreon.

Even if it’s not ready by the end of the year, I at least want to get started on it. I put it off a lot last year because I was worried that no-one would want to sign up to it. This is still one of my big goals although I’ve tweaked the original vision a bit. It will now be a hub for all things Elemental Dragons, which means that Original Elementals will be published on there first.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I love participating in these events and my writing wouldn’t be where it is without them. I want to participate in all three events again this year and hopefully get some books done in that time!

I’m being a bit kinder to myself this year which is why I’m not setting as many goals as I usually do. I want to try to focus on my mental health a bit more this year. I didn’t realise how hard I was pushing myself until I looked back at my goals from last year. I’m going to slow down a bit but still keep up with my writing.

What are your goals for this year? Let me know in the comments!

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New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

2023 Year in Review

Hi all,

It’s time for my year in review! Truthfully I haven’t been looking forward to this as I think I set my goals too high last time. I’m proud of what I’ve done but I think I could have been a bit nicer to myself. This will be reflected in next year’s goals. Either way, I still hit a few of my targets!

Write Five Books

I managed to write four books this year! They were:

Original Elementals #6: Sunrise

Empty Skies #1: Missing Constellations

Street Rats

Original Elementals #7: Stormburst

One off my goal, but I’ve still done pretty well! I have plenty of time to write all of the books that I want to write, which is what I need to keep reminding myself.

Publish two books

Celestial Plague #2: Heaven and Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory have both been published this year!

Edit three books

I just need to do one more self-edit of Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway and that will be two books edited this year. Celestial Plague #4: Hell is completely edited and ready for publication next year.

Get covers designed for the final books in Celestial Plague

I’ve had actually had five covers designed this year, three of which are in the Original Elementals series. You’ll have to wait to see those covers revealed though.

Write the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection

I’ve written a lot of short stories in the Curse of Anubis universe, mostly thanks to the Furious Fiction monthly writimng challenge. I’m going to work on making a few of the stories a bit longer and then they’ll be ready to be made into a reader magnet. There are also a few stories that I still want to tell that I’ve drafted but not completely written yet.

Write more short stories

This one I’ve actually done a lot of! I’ve been writing a lot more short stories thanks to my writing group and the Furious Fiction challenge. A few have even been submitted to anthologies and have been accepted.

Design more merchandise

The Elemental Dragons bookmark was released this year and I was getting another one designed but unfortunately there were communication issues with the designer. I would love to get more dragon stickers designed in the future and maybe also some cats from my series.

Set up a Patreon

I’ve been stalling on this one because I’ve made a few changes to this plan. Instead of the Empty Skies series, it will instead be dedicated to Elemental Dragons. I want to turn it into a dragon lovers paradise. Everything on there will be dragon (or cat) related and I’d love to get this set in stone for 2024.

Build up my mailing list

This one has been great because I’ve got 450 people on my newsletter now. I’m running more polls and giveaways to hopefully drive up engagement. I’ll be releasing the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection as well as a thank you to everyone who has supported me.

Continue learning Spanish

Unfortunately this one has taken a back seat this year. I’d love to pick it up again at some point and carry on learning.

Read 50 books

I blew this goal out of the water and read 126! I love reading and found so many good books this year. I read a lot of GameLit which was recommended to me by work colleagues. I’ve got plenty of books on my TBR list to get through which will hopefully make a dent in all of the piles around my flat.

Participate in both NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo

I participated in all three again this year and loved every second of it. I managed to hit one million words written total throughout all the challeneges I’ve done over the years. I love the community and all of the work that goes into creating NaNoWriMo and how many writers participate. It’s my favourite writing challenge.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’m going to discuss my goals for 2024, so keep an eye out for that. See you next Sunday.

PS; if you’re looking for new monster books to read this year then check out this bundle:

New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

A Peek at my Warrior Cats FanFiction

Hi all,

I'f you’ve read my blog posts for a while you might remember when I posted about the Warriors Short Story Competition. The book series, written by Erin Hunter, has been a favourite of mine for years now and I was so excited to enter. I didn’t win, but I did promise to eventually post my entry for you to read. I think you’ve waited long enough to see what my FanFiction is like!

Brightpaw swings around, expecting a short trek to Snakerocks. Instead, she finds that they've arrived already. 

"How did we get here?" 

Swiftpaw nudges her with a purr. "We walked, mousebrain!" 

"But I don't remember-" 

"Quiet!" Whitestorm raises his tail. "What can you two smell?" 

Swiftpaw eagerly inhales. "Dogs!" 

"Dogs?" Brightpaw echoes, her tail drooping. 

This doesn't happen like this.

"Yes, I'm sure of it!" Swiftpaw continues to meow excitedly. "Do we get to chase them off, Longtail?" 

Brightpaw wants to speak but finds herself unable to. Her mouth goes dry, and her paws feel rooted to the spot. 

There's a panicked yowl from the patrol as a dog seems to appear from the rocks in front of them. Its large body ripples with a bark and it pulls its lips back in a snarl.

"Longtail!" 

Swiftpaw's panicked scream makes her flatten her ears. The tabby tom is being dragged back into a forest by another dog who just came out of nowhere. Another has Swiftpaw pinned. She screams as the dog darts forward, going for her friend's neck. Before the teeth can make contact, the black and white tom disappears into a fine mist. Her fellow apprentice is completely gone and now the dog is glaring at her. 

None of this happened this way! 

She looks to her mentor for comfort, but Whitestorm isn't there anymore. Instead, a pure white she-cat is stood in his place, her green eyes flashing with fury. 

"Come and get me, mange-pelt!" The she-cat yowls. 

No! She wasn't here! 

The white cat sprints forward like Swiftpaw did. Her paws pound against the earth, sounding like thunder in Brightpaw's ears. She can only watch in horror as her beloved daughter springs forward, her claws outstretched, ready to fight like all of LionClan. 

"Whitewing! No!" 

Everything seems to happen in slow motion as the dog snaps its jaws around Whitewing's torso. The dog pins her beneath one of its grubby paws. Her daughter looks at her mother with fear in her green eyes. 

"Mother!" She cries out, clawing at the ground with her free paw. 

"Whitewing!" Brightpaw is still frozen to the spot, no matter how much she wills her body to move. "Whitewing!" 

"Mother!" 

The last shout is clearer, and Brightheart's eye snaps open. The ginger and white she-cat shoots out of her nest with a gasp, taking several clumps of clawed moss with her. 

Her daughter brushes against her with a purr. "I'm here, mother." 

Brightheart takes a moment to catch her breath. "Another nightmare." 

"I've asked Thornclaw to cover my spot on the dawn patrol. I can stay here with you." 

"You don't have to pause your warrior duties to worry about a silly elder." 

Whitewing brushes her tail against her mother’s chin. "I don't have to, but you know I will. Why don't we go out for a walk to clear your head?" 

"I'd like that," She purrs. "I love you." 

Whitewing grins just like Swiftpaw used to. "I love you too, mother." 

***

That’s it for this week! Next week will be my year in review, so keep an eye out for that. See you next Sunday.

NaNoWriMo 2023 Wrap-Up

Hi all! 

For NaNoWrimo this year I pledged to write 50k for the first draft of Original Elementals #7: Stormburst. After taking a break in July I thought I would go back into full swing into the Elemental Dragons universe. 

My word count is... 

I managed to finish the first draft on the final day and I am pretty pleased with the result. This book was a lot easier to write than other books I've done and I found I didn't get as burnt out. I don't know if that's because I love writing about dragons or if I was just in a better place mentally when I started writing it. 

This book focuses on Logan and his mission. He is to help a Sea Serpent find a mate. Although he thinks that this will be easy, he soon discovers that it would take longer than he hoped. The town of Serpentbridge is introduced, who live alongside Sea Serpents in harmony. 

Logan is based off of my cat, Rocky. When he passed away in August I was devastated. Especially since I knew this book was coming up. But I thought it was quite therapeutic and I was glad to give him the happy ending he deserved. I also managed to fit his girlfriend, Serena, into the book as well! Serena vanished one day so I wasn't sure if she passed away or ran away from home. Either way, I am so glad that I could get them together again for the book. 

This book also solidifies everyone's distrust in Zmei and most of the characters turn their backs on them. One decides to stand by Zmei rather than their friends, however. Draca comes across as the good guy but if you've read Elemental Dragons then you know that's not the case. 

The next book that I will be working on is Turf, the eighth book in the Original Elementals series. As I've said previously, I'm hoping to make a Patreon which will be a dragon lovers paradise. The books from the Original Elementals series will be posted there first and then published on Amazon at a later date. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week! 

My First Ever Book

Hi all, 

When I was 10 or 11 years old I started writing my first book and managed to finish it in a few months. It was a complete rewrite of my favourite book at the time, Into The Wild. Of course it's a Warriors book! I wrote the book with the same plot and characters, only to include my own character into the mix as well. 

I remember being so proud of it at the time and excitedly showing it to my family. I hand wrote the entire thing and even redrew the cover! My grandfather was the only one to read it through and he shared my excitement even though looking back the book was awful. I was still proud of myself for doing it and it proved that I could write a book if I really wanted to. Of course, it would be almost a decade before I wrote my next book, an original one called Blood and Water. 

The Warriors rewrite wasn't great, as I just moulded the story around my own character. She was a cat who could shoot thunderbolts out of her paws. She was best friends with the main character and helped him with all aspects of the story. Technically it was my first FanFiction too! I think the main character was called Thunderheart but I can't quite remember. 

I did start writing the sequel too, which followed most of the same story as Fire and Ice. I don't think I got around to finishing that one though. I think a wrote a few chapters and made the cover. While most of my family thought it was just silly children's writing, my grandfather was always there to support me. He helped me weave maths into the story so I could learn while I wrote and made it fun. I know he loved the fact that I carried on writing into adulthood and I'm so glad that he got to see three of my books published before he passed. He was probably also glad that he didn't have to read about Warrior Cats anymore! I hope that he's proud of how far I've come with my writing now. 

That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week! 

PS; check out this book bundle full of free post-apocalyptic books!

A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas Giveaway

NaNoWriMo 2023 Project Announcement

Hi all, 

With November on the horizon it's time for me to announce my project for NaNoWriMo. This time, I'm going to be writing 50K words of the first draft of Original Elementals #7: Stormburst. Now that I've taken a break to write Missing Constellations, I feel a lot more refreshed to step back into the Elemental Dragons universe. 

First off, what is NaNoWriMo? It’s a yearly writing event where you have the month of November to write 50,000 words. This can be for a new book or an already existing project. I always start new books for this event.

This book will be bittersweet as the main character, Logan, is based off my late cat, Rocky. Everything will be written in his perspective, though he won't be exactly the same as his clone, Rocky, in Elemental Dragons. I miss my cat a lot and I'm hoping that this book will bring me further towards healing. It's going to be hard to write as he's always going to be in the back of my mind but I know he would want me to keep writing. 

This story will focus on Logan and his dragon, Stormburst. His mission is to help Sea Serpents. Although it isn't going to be as easy as he expected. First he needs to track down a Sea Serpent, which is difficult when you're locked up in a camp with guards patrolling at all hours of the morning. He already doesn't trust Zmei so will not be listening to their advice much. 

Stormburst is not fully developed enough to fly with a rider, but because Western Dragons are so new their companions aren't aware of this fact yet. She has had a growth spurt between books but not enough for her to support Logan on her back. The book will delve into his disappointment with this and how this affects his relationship with her. 

The other Originals will appear as well, but mainly Benjamin as he is Logan's best friend. 

I'm looking forward to diving back into the Elemental Dragons universe as I really need to scratch that itch to write about dragons! Completing this book will draw the series even closer to it's end and I can't wait to start publishing these books. 

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these fantasy book bundles:

Silver Winged September: KU Fantasy Adventures that take to the sky!

Abundant Woo-niverse Giveaways for Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

Why I Love Participating in Anthologies

Hi all! 

If you've been checking out my other publications page, you've probably seen the list of anthologies that I've been published in. When I write short stories, I submit only to anthologies now. Why? Read below! 

Physical copies. 

Anthologies are far more likely to do physical copies when published. I love lining them all up on my bookshelf to see how much I've been published in. One anthology that I was included in even sent out a physical copy as part of the payment for submitting, which I thought was really nice. 

Builds your portfolio. 

You can add Anthologies that you've submitted to when you're pitching to agents and publishers. The fact that you already have work out there shows that you're dedicated to your craft and also boosts your letters if you're struggling to find stuff to add to it. 

Free Submission. 

I only submit to anthologies that don't have a submission fee. Not because they're not worth it, but because I don't think it's right to charge authors a lot of money to have one short story published in the book. I know some authors prefer only submitting to paid ones, but I like to keep my budget for my own books. 

Different Themes. 

I've found that my writing has gotten a lot better when I broaden the themes. My favourite theme so far is one about nephilim. I found the subject so intriguing that I knew I needed to write something for it straight away. 

Collaborative Project. 

I really love reading other authors’ stories. I love seeing an insight into how their minds work and how their writing differs from mine. You can find your new favourite author in an anthology if you look hard enough! 

More Variety. 

I can write a variety of short stories or even submit ones that have been sat in my folder for a while. It gets them out there and it also drives me to go outside of my comfort zone on some occasions. 

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoy reading, see you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

Silver Winged September: KU Fantasy Adventures that take to the sky!

Abundant Woo-niverse Giveaways for Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi