Laying the Foundation, or What’s a Year in the Life of a Writer? (PLUS A FREE BOOK!)

Posted on by Jove Belle in Announcements, Everyday Life, Goals, Promotional Hoo-Ha

Congratulations to nerdgirl1115! She won an ebook of her choice. Woo!

2016 promises to be a busy year of writing, editing, publishing, and all the things that go along with that.

Before we get into all that, I thought it would be nice to close out 2015 and start 2016 with a book giveaway. Drop a comment in the space below to enter. Winner get’s her (or his) choice of any of my books. Ebook, please, because shipping is nutso these days. I’ll announce the winner next Thursday.

Now, with the fun stuff out of the way, let’s get down to the business side of this post. Here’s a rough idea of what’s on my agenda. Some are things I hope to do. Others are things that will definitely happen.

Writing for Fun

  • Hearts and RosesI have six free short stories on my website now. You can check them out HERE if you’d like. During 2016, I’d like to add at least two more.
  • I’ve been playing around with fan fiction lately. It’s always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I love to read it and it’s really time for me to give something back to that generous community. Turns out, it’s a fun experiment to try and write something that’s true to a world someone else created.

Writing for Profit

  • Cake400x600Cake (A Bitterroot Novella) is scheduled for release in February.
  • Archer Securities (book 2 in The Law Game Series) is another novella scheduled for June. More info to come on this.
  • Bitterroot Queen (Book 2 in the Bitterroot Saga) is the first novel, but second story in the Bitterroot Saga, after Cake. It’ll be released in September.
  • Untitled novella (part of the Window Shopping series) coming in December.

Special Writing Projects

  • The Law Game is a series of novellas (that is threatening to turn into novels for some authors) by a group of authors. The theme of the stories is, you guessed it, some sort of illegal activity and/or investigation. I’m honored and excited to be a part of  this project, and my novella, Archer Securities, is the second in the series and will be out in June.
  • There is another novella series that I’m lucky enough to be included in that will start this fall. More info to come on this one.

Editing

  • Ylva PublishingI have several editing projects lined up for the coming year, including a few projects from the fabulous Gill McKnight, the sophomore work from Lee Winter,  a couple of novels from Cheyenne Blue, plus a few new authors who I am stoked to be able to work with. There’s some awesome stuff coming from Ylva authors in 2016 and I’ll share more as I have it to share.
  • Finding Ms. Write is an anthology that I’m co-editing with Jae. The deadline to submit is March 1st, and we’d love to hear from you. Check out the call for submissions HERE.

Fund Raising Events

  • Late this fall, I’ve scheduled the release of a fund-raising anthology to support breast cancer research. More details to come about this.

Blog

  • Women and Words – I’ll do my regular scheduled post every other Wednesday. Currently, I’m working on a series of marketing blogs.
  • bike2016 in 2016 – I started a new blog to chronicle my rides for the year. I plan to ride 2,016 miles in 2016.
  • Writing exercises – I write better when I have periodic opportunities to write without a higher purpose or goal. It took me a long time to figure that out. To that end, I’m sharing the results of my writing prompts here once a week.
  • Logo.3Badass Women Save Themselves – Okay, technically, this is a podcast, not a blog. But it’s still a fun side project wherein Blythe Rippon and I discuss the badass women in pop culture, including TV shows, movies, music, and literature. Check out the fun HERE.

Events

  • Rainbow Book Fair – this is still in thttp://womensweekprovincetown.com/he planning stages for me, but I’m leaning heavily toward attending. If you’re in New York City in April,  come by and say hi. If I’m not there, a bunch of other Ylva authors will be.
  • Wedding – So this is completely personal and non-book related, but it’s pretty important to me, so I’m mentioning it here. Yeah, June. Twenty-one years later and we’re getting married. It promises to be one hell of a party.
  • Prides o’ Plenty – I’ll be out repping  Ylva at all kinds of pride events this summer.
  • GCLS – I’ll definitely be in Washington, D.C. (okay, across the river in Alexandria, VA) in July for this event.
  • Willamette Writers Conference – I’ll be hanging at this writer’s conference in August. If you’re in Portland, come hang out with me.
  • Women’s Week – 2016 will be my first visit to Provincetown in October for Women’s Week. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Technology

  • Dragon Naturally Speaking is an intuitive dictation program that allows the user to speak rather than type. So far, all I’ve managed to do is get frustrated with Dragon. By the end of 2016, I vow to make it my bitch.
  • Scrivener is the other new piece of software on my work computer. Lots of authors use it to help them organize and track their writing projects. I’m currently working on Archer Securities and I’m using Scrivener as my primary tool

 

28 thoughts on “Laying the Foundation, or What’s a Year in the Life of a Writer? (PLUS A FREE BOOK!)”

      1. Doing my best to stay out of trouble. Winning Publisher’sClearing House would also be nice….lol!

        Like

      1. Well, I’m still in the midst of the long immigration process. I’m legal, here in New Zealand, till November. I need to find a job so that I can pay bills and so that they will extend my visa. Meanwhile, I’m counting on editing, hiking and outdoor volunteering, three teens, and a wonderful partner to keep me busy. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Whow thats a lot to do. Wish you all the best for all your projects. Especially the wedding. Three years ago I also got married to my wife in june. A wonderful year for you and your family. Sunny greetings

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  5. Can I enter the giveaway please 😀
    Thank you for adding short stories to read on your website. I am so so excited to read these your new books in 2016. Gonna be a good year xx

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  7. First of all, congratulations on your wedding!!

    Its great that you have your hands in so many different projects. That’s a great way to keep your mind active. I’m going to take a page from you and try some writing without a higher purpose in hopes it will stoke the creative juices.

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  9. Happy New Year, sounds like a great full year ahead. I am slowly getting back into writing. First email I received in the new year was one sending great positive about one of my stories on the academy, Well chuffed. 🙂

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  10. You got there a very rich and appealing agenda.
    I’ve just started with some apetizer reading your short stories and I definitely wish to keep on reading more of your works.
    Today is Epiphany day in Italy, I wish you a generous epiphany and a benevolent muse.

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  11. Congrats on the wedding. Getting married was the best thing I ever did. We were together for 7 years before the wedding but it still felt different being married. Also looking forward to your 2016 books!

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  12. Let me start by wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Wow. I’m thoroughly impressed with your plans. Congrats on the wedding. I’m sure it’ll be wonderful. It took me a while to figure out where I could leave my reply (didn’t scroll down far enough..), but here I am. Have a lovely day!

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  13. Wow, that is an impressive to do list for 2016! Congratulations on the impending nuptials, getting married was the best thing I’ve ever done. So, you are inspiring me to get back in the game and see what 2016 and beyond has in store. I’m working on a few projects, and expect to have a couple of my own announcements soon. Best wishes for the best 2016 ever, Jove!

    Liked by 1 person

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