Resolutions

Posted on January 1, 2020December 26, 2019 by writer35_bg

What’s your plan for the coming year?

Resolutions are more than a Wish List. They’re the plan that gives us guidance.

Looking Back at Previous Resolutions

In 2019 Writers Ink Books stopped procrastinating, followed one of the January 1 resolutions, and registered copyright for all 30-plus books.

While we know Copyright Law says everything is protected from the moment of publication, in this world of shysters stealing people’s books, it’s essential to have officially registered copyright.

In total, W.Ink has published 30-plus books.

Looking Forward at New Resolutions

2020 will see a lot of changes for Writers Ink. It’s all part of a new business plan tied to updated resolutions. Will the plan cover five years? Three years? That’s a decision still up in the air.

Website Changes

One change has already happened. The old Writers Ink Services website has come down; this new Writers Ink Nonfiction site is starting completely new. This is part of the resolutions to focus all writing. One way is to split nonfiction from fiction.

Another website may open up relatively soon–this is another way to focus writing, fulfilling the resolutions. Announcements for this site will occur here. Don’t get excited; the individual writers will keep their Blogger sites.

W.Ink may take down the old WIB site and start anew–or just re-vamp every page and link.

WIB now has an SSL certificate–although no plans for selling online are in the works. An SSL certificate is necessary to drive traffic to this site. Otherwise, the search engines refuse to look at it. We’re still waiting on information about the SSL for W.Ink Nonfiction.

What else?

Well, a couple of other changes to the Biz Model are slowly grinding forward. One has to do with the potential new website. The other has to do with a completely new writing space.

The previous Biz Plan is slowly grinding down. (New Biz Plan always take into account the old Biz Plan.)

All books will gradually go wide over the course of 2020 and 2021.

M.A. Lee

This year will see the entire Hearts in Hazard series by M.A. Lee completed and in paperback, a dreamed reality in the works since our 2013 beginning, with the official biz date of 2015. Turning the HnH series into paperbacks will be a summer-long venture.

M.A. Lee’s series Into Death will finish and go into paperback as well, hopefully in May.

February will see more writing how-to books, with the Discovering set turning into a bundle during March.

Remi Black

cover for next Remi Black Remi Black’s Enclave World is a new direction for the Enclave series, an offshoot of the main series. Both series are on-going. New branding will occur to match the tighter focus.

Look for To Charm the Wind and To Curse the Wyre to bundle up with To Wield the Wind as Spells of Air.

The main Enclave series will pick up with the next Alstera book in 2021.

Edie Roones

Edie Roones still has plans to finish the Seasons in Sansward series in 2020. More new branding will occur here.

Summing Up

None of the W.Ink writers is close to achieving the Discoverability number of 25 to 30. Resolutions for all the W.Ink writers have that as #1 for the new Biz Plan.

Life is good!

Where will your dreamed reality take you?

Anniversary of Publication ~ Summer Sieges

Posted on August 30, 2019July 10, 2019 by writer35_bg

The first book in Edie Roones’ epic fantasy Summer Sieges has its anniversary of publication today. It’s also the first book published by Writers Ink Books, and it has a special place in our hearts for leading the way to indie publishing.

I started writing Summer Sieges way back in the 1980s. I had realized the first book that I had written (which eventually became the second book in the Sansward quarternary and transformed through many title iterations to become Autumn Spells) wasn’t the start of the Sansward story, so I backed up and launched with a story of a swordswoman and a man enchanted in the shape of a wolf, trapped for centuries, and both of them have to fight Gitane Witches and the troops of the Overlord Summa.

Summer Sieges began as Castlewarder, became White Sword, Red Death and finally became SSieges when I decided to launch into indie publishing.

I had hoped that updating the book would be merely correcting a few things. Nope. It wasn’t a massive overhaul (the way the third book in the quarternary Winter Sorcery had to be gutted and rewritten and revised and re-considered). I decided to use it as the test for indie publishing while I finished up the third book for the M.A. Lee pseudonym of Regency mysteries with a dash of romance (The Game books: Game of Secrets, Game of Spies, and Game of Hearts).

I started working on it as soon as the teaching year ended. June. July. August. And today, August 30, is its birthday.

I still love this story. Love the start. Love the fight scenes. Love the connection between Beren and Storr. Love so much about this book. Love the ending.

I’d like to come back to Beren and Storr. They keep swirling up opportunities for sequels. I’ve got other books committed, though, so they will have to wait. And simmer. And stew.

As for now, here’s how to get it:

Recommended: Nine Coaches Waiting

Posted on August 21, 2019August 14, 2019 by writer35_bg

Books to Read, Writers to Love

Writer Edie Roones is chattering about the master storyteller Mary Stewart and the importance of re-reading books by favorite authors.

She re-reads a Stewart every year.

This year, she’s on her fifth reading of a beloved book by Stewart.

It’s Nine Coaches Waiting.

Read her blog here. (And take a look at three completely different covers for this bestselling books.)

Running Behind and Looking Ahead

Posted on July 25, 2019July 26, 2019 by writer35_bg

I’m running behind.

In my “entity” as M.A. Lee, my current mystery The Hazard of Secrets was supposed to be finished on the last day of June. Here it is 25 days later, and I’m still not finished. I’m running behind.

For HoS, I have 5 to 7 more chapters to write. My expected word count was 55,000. I am currently at 50,000-plus.

When I look at the scenes that are necessary to finish the mystery and solve the crime and close the other threads, I think that word count is going to be closer to 70,000 than 65,000. Those extra words are part of the problem.

However, the main problem with running behind is TIME. Writers can’t find the time to catch up.

Throughout July and the tail end of June–the reason that I am running behind–I’ve only managed two days of creative writing each week. As I am looking ahead to the end of July, I see no time to write on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, and maybe a little time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This is the kind of thing that drives me crazy!

I’ve had tons of disruptions–and have used the time crowded around those disruptions (when the brain won’t settle to creativity) to work on revisions–and I have been contending with a back injury at the end of May. I just found out that the back injury is actually a broken rib. No wonder I’ve been hurting and not able to sleep the night through.

12th rib. A floating one. It’s the bottom-most rib. Right there at my liver. Yikes!

When I launch into a year, I have a plan, the Yearly Plan, of what I hope to accomplish. For most of my teaching career, I over-scheduled. That helps when you’re dealing with teen-agers: Idle hands and the devil’s workshop and all that.

So~

Based on my plan at the start of the year, Me as M.A. Lee should be in the middle of my 11th Hearts in Hazard book, The Hazard for Spies. Well, no.

That plan also had me nearly finished with a writing craft book, Discovering Your Characters. I was supposed to be working slowly through that nonfiction book (5th in the Discovering / Think like a Pro Writer series). Nope. I have about 21,000 of an expected 35,000 guidebook. I know what needs to come next. I’ve got words roughed out, some merely sketched out, and the vaguest of ideas for the rest.

At the start of June I re-adjusted by Yearly Plan at the start of June. I knew I was running behind on HoSecrets; H4Spies should start around July 20. I knew I was running behind on DiscChar; I figured I would finish it around July 30.

That ain’t going to happen.

Yes, I said ain’t.

Now my whole Yearly Plan is thrown off. Gee whillikers.

Mysteries by M.A. Lee ~

I may not have anything written, but I have the H4S cover!

Hazard of Secrets, new deadline: August 15.

Hazard for Spies, new deadline: October 15.

That will finish the 12-book Hearts in Hazard series. I’ve enjoyed Regency mysteries. I’ve discovered that I’m really not happy writing “suspense” and “scary” and that I prefer mysteries and vintage gothics a la Mary Stewart and Phyllis A. Whitney and Victoria Holt.

One of the things that I have wanted to do for this series is to turn them into real paperbacks. Holding the book (rather than the electronic device), flipping the pages, dipping in and out–that’s a reader’s true joy. So, converting the manuscripts to paperback is the plan for 2020.

As for the Rest of my Writing Year

Writing Craft Books ~ also Me as M.A. Lee

Discovering Your Characters, new deadline: August 15 (half-a-month behind)

Discovering Your Plot, new deadline, September 30 (30 days behind). 50% is already roughly written; the rest has notes and ideas and sketched points that should speed along.

Discovering Your Author Brand, new deadline ??? About 15% is roughly written. The rest will have to come from scratch.

Discovering Sentence Craft, new deadline ~ ??? May not make 2019, so early in 2020.

Fantasy ~ Me as Remi Black and Me as Edie Roones (Oooh, two for one).

I have two fantasy novellas that I want to write. I really, really enjoyed the one that I published in early May. Writing To Wield the Wind was inspired and inspiring. I’m going to enjoy returning to this world with parts 2 and 3 of this Enclave World series under my pseudonym of Remi Black.

These two novellas to finish the series will happen, even if it means the Writing Craft books are pushed back into 2020. That’s okay. I want to bundle all five of the Discovering / Think like a Pro Writer books as ebooks as well as put them into paperback form. The paperback form wasn’t going to be possible until 2020, so I’ll just combine those projects into one big focus.

Poor Edie Roones is just sitting there, hanging out, waiting for her turn. I have the Sansward four-part series to finish, with Spring Magicks. I have ideas but nothing written. That’s on schedule for 2020 as well.

2019 Becomes 2020

I need to finish the Isabella Into Death series with Portrait with Death. That’s M.A. Lee. Maybe it will happen in 2020, maybe not.

M.A. Lee has 14 novels (as well as 4 nonfiction books) under that pseudonym. Finishing the Into Death series will put that number at 15. Ideas are popping up for the next series already. Geez, brain, slow down a little.

I need to devote more writing time to Remi Black and Edie Roones. Under my Remi Black pseudonym I have two novellas that I am desperate to write as well as the last 3 Alstera / Enclave books. I have more ideas for the Edie Roones pseudonym, remaining focused on Medieval–fantasy and mystery as separate lines.

When I look at 2020, I see so much that I want to write already, and this is not even an official plan!

Heavens,

so even if I’m running Behind,

LIFE IS GOOD!

Celebrate a Fantasy’s Birthday

Posted on March 20, 2019February 3, 2019 by writer35_bg

This month W.Ink Books is celebrating the anniversary of the publication of three books.

On this date last year, Edie Roones published the third book in the Seasons in Sansward quartet, Winter Sorcery.

Two Frenc spies escape from Overlord Summa’s army. Tracked by a Gitane Witch and a military troop, they receive help from two women in northern Arlas.

What will happen when the Gitane arrives to capture the spies?