The White Thread Blog Tour Kicks Off!

Here we go! These are the dates for my blog tour celebrating the August 16th release of book 3 of The Gateway Chronicles, The White Thread. I'm really excited about this one! There will be interviews, reviews, and giveaways aplenty, so check it out and join the fun. The first stop on the tour is over at Paperback Princess with a character interview with Perry. Enjoy!

http://paperbookprincess.blogspot.com/

Girl Who Reads: Thankful: The White Thread

Girl Who Reads: Thankful: The White Thread. Fabulous review that made me blush! Enjoy.

Book Signing

Well, tonight was a very fun night! I had a book signing sandwiched in-between socials for the Logic and Rhetoric students at my school, and a lot of people showed up! I sold clean out of The White Thread within 45 minutes (something I truly did not expect) and sold several additional copies of my previous two books as well. After the signing, I had a question and answer session with about twenty of the students who stayed for the social, and it was quite fun to listen to some of their theories and speculations and to get to answer some questions about my books. And then I came home and got to sit down and order fifty more copies in for people who still want to buy them! It was a good night. Tomorrow I get to have a conversation with a professional in the business to discuss some options for my books, so I'm looking forward to that as well. I'm going to continue focusing on marketing and sales up through Christmas here, and then hopefully begin work on book 4.

Going Strong!

I find myself woefully behind on my blogging, for which I sincerely apologize. The effort of completing early marketing efforts on The White Thread and monitoring early sales has consumed that part of my brain that is available for my writing endeavors (ie. that part which is not taken up with being a wife, mother, housekeeper, and full-time teacher). I am happy to report, however, that my sales are going strong, and last I checked I had two five-star reviews up on Amazon for the print edition (which you should check out if you're new to me or my writing). I'm getting fabulous reviews from those people who have already read my third installment of The Gateway Chronicles, and I have a book release party/signing scheduled and coming up soon (for info, visit the group fan page for The Gateway Chronicles on facebook). All things considered, the past couple weeks have been a whirlwind, and I'm doing all I can the keep the momentum strong for the Christmas season. I am constantly being told, "This should be a movie!" or, "WHEN is this going to be a movie?" I usually laugh and say, rather tongue-in-cheek, "Well, that depends on YOU!" In all reality, though, that is the truth. As a lowly independent author, the success or failure of this series rests largely on the shoulders of those of my fans that are willing to spread the word, write me reviews on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, Good Reads, and wherever else my books can be ordered, buy my books for others as Christmas or birthday presents, and place copies in school and public libraries. (Some of you are already doing so many of these things, and for that I genuinely thank you!). For my part, I promise to keep writing, through this series and beyond, and to keep scheduling book signings, to keep blogging (hopefully more frequently than I have as of late), and to keep being active on Twitter and facebook. Thanks again to all of you who have enthusiastically helped me, and if you're new to me, click on one of the book icons on the right to read about my books and what my readers think of them. Bye for now! (To follow me on Twitter, search for @kbhoyle1).

Productivity... or Lack Thereof

I know that I am way overdue for an update on my progress, and for that I apologize. Just chalk it up to the productivity problems I have been having for the past month. Let's just say that I am trying my hardest to get The White Thread out as soon as possible. I have been, however, severely hampered by exhaustion ever since school started up for the year (it's difficult to get revision work done when every time you sit down to work on it, you fall asleep!). I have a great teaching schedule at work this year, I'm just... tired. I'm recovering now from a bout with the flu, too, which hasn't helped things. Once I started to feel a little better this afternoon, I got about an hour's worth of work done, so that's good, and I'm going to try and hammer out the rest of the fact-checking and revisions starting this weekend and into next week. I think it's going to be very difficult to have book 3 done by Sept. 30th, but if I can't make that deadline, it will be finished in early October, THAT I can promise!

Back Cover Summary!

Okay, I'm still working on this, but I decided to go ahead and post my draft of the back cover summary of The White Thread:

For a year, Darcy Pennington has agonized over the fate of her dear friend Yahto Veli who sacrificed himself to set her free at the end of her last year in Alitheia. As her third trip to the magical land approaches, Darcy wonders if the daring rescue she desires to launch will be allowed to go forward. Darcy soon comes to realize, however, that much more is at stake than merely the rescue of her friend. Her return to Alitheia is marked by the mysterious disappearance of Colin Mackaby, and a new message from the Oracle adds to the riddles that the Six must decipher if they are to expell Tselloch from the land. Along the way relationships will be created and destroyed, and for some characters, the deepest scars are those you can't see.

I agonized over writing this for some reason, and it might stay just as it is... or it might completely change. For you die hard fans out there, though, it at least gives you a little sneak peak and addresses the question you've all been pestering me about all year!

I finished adding the changes from the outside editing last night and sent it off to two more people. My friend (and fellow indie author Schledia Benefield) is going to write a review blurb for the back cover, and my "student" reader Katie Foust is going to give me the intended audience perspective. (I have to say "student" because she's technically not my student any more as she graduated this past spring, but she still falls within the intended audience range of 13-18 years old). Once I hear back from both of them, I can begin the final fact-checking and polishing up that needs to take place before I order my first proof copy. Overall, I can't believe how fast this has gone this year! If you had told me six months ago that I would be through my outside edits before the first day of school, I would have laughed. Speaking of school, I have more planning time during the school day this year than ever before. I'm hoping to be able to take less work home as a result and am toying around with the idea of beginning on either book 4 (The Enchanted) or the outline of my next project during the school year. Anyhow, we'll see how things go. Hope you enjoy the back cover summary! Let me know if you have any thoughts.

First Revision

Well, I finished my first revision of The White Thread earlier this week, and I felt this amazing sense of relief! Ahhh... finished with the most laborious stage of the operation. The draft is with my friend Beth getting its first outside edit, and I can't wait to hear what she thinks of it. As with the previous two books, she'll be the first person to read it all the way through other than your's truly. I still feel as though I should be working on my book every night, though, so I've been getting this strange sense of unrest every night and am craving a good story to read. It really is good for me to have the story off my hands for a few weeks because I have a lot of other work to complete before the school year starts... which is really soon! Anyhow, this is just a very quick update. I'll try to write something more clever later in the week.

Revisions... And YouTube Book Plug!

Hello All! I am halfway through my first read-through/revision of The White Thread and feeling very good about the pace of things. This first revision is mostly about checking for continuity from beginning to end (ie. did I start any subplots that I neglected to resolve or address later on?) and checking for obvious typos. When I am finished with this, it will go off to a good friend for editing, and then another good friend after that for another edit. While it is out of my hands, I will be re-reading The Six and The Oracle to fact and continuity check (again... it's really a never-ending process). When it comes back to me, I will incorporate all changes and suggestions, in the meantime completing my second read-through. Then I will hand it off to a student reader. I do this to gage reader response to the story and how successful I was at suspending disbelief. While it is with my student reader, it will also go to an author friend who will be reading it to write a "blurb" for the back cover for me. Finally I will submit the draft to createspace and order my first proof copy so that I can complete my third read-through... and so forth and so on until I feel that it is as polished as it is going to get. There are also formatting and cover submission details to work through with createspace, which is always a headache, so I don't really want to think about that just yet. Oh yes, and I suppose I will have to write my back cover description soon. So... lots to do, lots to do. I will try to keep it fun and post an excerpt or two from the book as publication time draws near. It warms my heart to know how many of you guys are looking forward to this book! While YOU are waiting, check out this amazing youtube video plug for my book. It will take less than two minutes to watch, and the more hits it gets on youtube, the better! Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxxHI6M2kSQ

Draft 1, Complete!

I tried as hard as a could to complete my first draft of The White Thread by Sunday morning, but I had to call it quits at 5:30 in the morning when my thumb joints had swollen so badly I could hardly move them and I was so fuzzy-brained that every word was a challenge to get out. Still, I went to bed feeling as though I was basically finished, as I was half-way through the last chapter. I finished officially, however, late last night (or early this morning) and it feels quite good to be done! So, 51 days of writing has left me with a draft that is 407 pages long. I have much editing and revising to do, however, so this number will remain fluid, and I'm going to try and trim it down to 400 pages if possible. Trimming the length doesn't always have to mean getting rid of a lot of content, either. I tend to be wordy and redundant in my rough drafts, so cutting out overused words and phrases can sometimes gain me back whole pages.

I had planned on beginning my first read through this afternoon, but as soon as I sat down to write this blog post, I could hear my two year old stirring from his nap. Do toddlers have an internal radar that alerts them whenever Mommy wants to get something done? Quick! She's about to be productive... make a ruckus! Oh well. I could probably use a day off anyhow.

Almost There!

I was right about how I'd feel this week... a LOT happier than last week! I finally got through my block and the second half of the book starting rolling along very quickly. I'm on page 300, so I'm less than 100 pages away from the end. Some of the scenes that I wrote this week are really great, too, I think. I introduced a new villainess, and she was scary enough to give ME nightmares when I went to bed that night, so I must have done something right. I've also written a deliciously awkward scene between two characters and a scene that even made me cry a little. I know, I know... this is probably the point at which some of you will say, "Wow, you are way too invested in your characters! It's just a story; come back to reality." Well, of course I'm invested in my characters and my story! If I can't write characters for which I feel something, then why would you - my readers - feel anything for them? Anyhow, I am almost there in terms of having a finished rough draft. I hope that I can finish in about a week, in fact, I'm almost certain that I can. I have this condition that when I get within a certain number of pages from the end of writing a book, I just HAVE to finish it, so I'm anticipating an all nighter sometime late this coming week. And then I will start the revision process, which is long, arduous, and sometimes painful... Just kidding. It's not that bad... most of the time. But for now, I'm off to bed.