My Year in Review: Writing in 2014

Tags

argetallam saga, daindreth's assassin, eli hinze, fanged princess, happy new year, intisar khanani, my books, writing update

I have been tagged by the lovely Eli Hinze along with the awesome Intisar Khanani to do an update post, detailing my literary exploits of 2014. Hence, I am here to confess to twelve months of general lack of focus. This year has seen me publish absolutely nothing at all, but that does not mean I haven’t been writing. No, I have been writing a great deal.

Here we have me with a cup of Early Grey in my natural habitat, seated before a laptop.

I did some stuff with the Argetallam Saga
This year saw me complete the drafts of the fourth and fifth books in Janir’s story and begin the sixth. I have mostly finished editing on the fourth book and that should be published early next year (God and my support team willing) along with the shiny reedited editions of the first three books with pretty, sparkly new covers gorgeously designed by T.L. Shreffler.

I hope to finish drafting the sixth and seventh books in 2015 to release them sometime early 2016.

Around St. Valentine’s I sort of brain-dumped Fanged Princess

The first draft of Fanged Princess 3 was completed *coughcough* January of this year. So why haven’t you gotten it yet? A very good question. An excellent question, in fact. The truth is, it’s not ready. I was distracted with drafting the fifth Argetallam book and then I got distracted with what has been become my guilty side project since spring 2013.

My favorite mug joining me in my favorite spot (yes, in front of my laptop).

Daindreth’s Assassin is my current vice

I have had a lot of readers tell me they’re excited for this series and asking if it’s published yet, which translates to a lot of pressure since I’m not planning to unveil it until summer 2016.

Writing the first book in this series was my 18th birthday present to myself. I worked on it off and on through the autumn, exploring the characters and the storyline and all of a sudden, everything clicked. I had the plot, the premise, the ending, all of it worked out.

Next thing you know, I’ve completed most the editing on book 1 with ginormous drafts of books 2 and 3 with book 4 more than halfway finished. When I say “ginormous,” I mean that the shortest book caps it off at well over 132,000 words (500-ish pages) and the longest is more like 260,000 words (900-ish pages).

There’s still lots of editing to do on those books (I mean LOTS), plus I’ve been reediting the first three Argetallam books. In other words, I am swamped. I’ve given myself a whole bunch of stuff to get done before I go back to school on January 20th and it’s freaking me out just thinking about it.

The forecast for 2015?

With a study abroad trip planned for next summer and a full course load at school, it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s actually going to happen. I just know that right now I’m planning to release the first four Argetallam books in the first four months of the year and the third Fanged Princess novella at some point in the summer.

As you can see, despite my lack of publication this year, I have by no means abandoned storytelling, quite the opposite. You people have got a tsunami of Elisabeth’s books headed your way. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a whole bunch of drafting/editing/screaming/panicking to get done.

What I did this weekend: Fangirling Edition

Tags

crown of midnight, eli hinze, fangirling, heir of fire, sarah j maas, texas teen book festival, throne of glass, ttbf14

Last Monday, I was cruising Facebook (yes, yes, I was wasting time, don’t judge) and I found a post saying that Sarah J. Maas was coming to Austin on Saturday.

After a period of hyperventilation, squeeing, jumping in my chair, and jumping around the room, I went and told everyone I knew, cleared my calender, and grabbed my set of the Throne of Glass books…

My preciouses

…and I told my family in no uncertain terms where I was going to be. On Saturday, my brother was sick, so he couldn’t come. But I went and bought him a set so he could have his own.

The archduchess herself, placing her glorious signature upon the title pages of my brother’s copies.

And would you like to know who took the above image? The utterly epic Hannah, who you all know better as Eli Hinze and I met up with in line to purchase my brother’s copies! We talked and talked about mythology, Throne of Glass, the creepiness of Ancient World leaders, and basically had a blast.

Photographic evidence.

In short, I got to hang out with a great friend, meet one of my idols, and now have three more epic books to add to my Shelf of Signed.

I still can’t believe it.

Can’t freaking believe it.

When the fourth book releases in a year, I mean to get it plus a copy of The Assassin’s Blade and hunt her down at an event so she can sign those, too.

(On a minor note, I still ship Chaolaena, Hannah ships Chaolaena, my brother ships Chaolaena. CHAOLAENA FOREVER!!! ❤ )