IWSG - January and 2019 One Word Resolutions

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here. 

So hey, guess what? Yeah, I was surprised too. It's the first Wednesday of the month already. I have an excuse though, I'm living in the brain haze of a cold someone gifted me at Christmas. This is why I stay safe in my writing cave, other people can't pass their germs to me. On the plus side, I'm catching up on my one word for this year. SLEEP.

Sleep and I used to be the best of friends. We'd spend long nights together, weekend mornings, we looked forward to spending time together. Now we're like long suffering spouses. We have to hang out but we don't talk. We spend the minimum amount of time together to get by. We meet in bed, the couch, and in my comfy chair for a few hours here and there. So this year, I'm hoping to get back on better terms with my old sleep pal, which may also help me in other areas. One can only hope.

This post marks my annual visit on past one word resolutions.  Let's tour them now, shall we?

2012 was the year of Less. This helped me overcome my habit of over obligation.

2013 was the year of Me. In which I focused a little more on myself.

2014 was the year when I said I would Write. Shit happened. Goal denied.

2015 Time. Making time to do the thing I wanted to do: write. 

2016 was the year of Relax.  That went pretty well and started my morning routine of time in my comfy chair.

2017 I tried to Enjoy. I'd give it a solid meh. I made an effort, but life, work, and finances often got in the way.

2018 was Speak. I did panels at a couple events. I organized events. I had a good time and met people.

Now back the whole first Wednesday thing... It's time for this month's Insecure Writer's Support
Group post! This month's question is:
What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

My least favorite question, and it comes up at least once at every author event I do, is: Oh, you wrote this book? Now let's just think about that for a second. I'm standing at a table with my books, telling you about my books, usually surrounded by other authors also at tables with their books. Do you think we're just random people championing someone else's books? While that's an interesting concept, it's probably not the case. Now, if you'd like to volunteer to go stand at a table for a few hours wherever you happen to live and sell my books for me, that would be super cool. I'll let you know where you can mail the check.

My favorite question is anyone asking about details of my books, or what inspired them. I do have a hard time not going off on tangents, because that's how my brain works, but authors do generally love talking about their books beyond what the back blurb says. So go ahead and ask!

Yes, I know the question is a plural thing, but I'm sick and I'm tired and so I'm keeping it short. Look at me not tangenting off and stuff. I may even go attempt this sleep thing. Cold meds are helpful to that cause.

More Cover Reveals: Nick Wilford's Corruption

While we're in cover reveal mode, here's two more! Not mine this time, but for Nick Wilford. First up is his new book, Corruption (Black & White #2).

Release Date: 11th February 2019

Cover design: germancreative

Wellesbury Noon and Ezmerelda Dontible have found themselves in a position where they can make their native land somewhere that lives up to its name: Harmonia. However, they’re setting their sights further afield for their number one task: eradicating the disease that has plagued the neighbouring country of Loretania for generations and allowed the privileged Harmonians to live in a sterile environment.

After dispatching a team of scientists to Loretania, armed with cratefuls of an antidote and vaccine and headed up by their friend, Dr George Tindleson, Welles, Ez, and Welles’s brother Mal – who grew up in that benighted nation – start to worry when they hear nothing back, despite what they had agreed. Commandeering a fishing boat to follow the science team over the sea, they soon find that, while the disease may be on the way out, a new kind of infection has set in – the corruption they thought they had stamped out in Harmonia.

Can they get to the root of the problem and eradicate it before even more damage is done to an innocent people?

*** Warning – this book contains themes that some sensitive readers may find upsetting. ***

Pre-order: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo  

Add it on Goodreads

He's also updated the cover for Black & White #1 (now free! so go check it out!)

Cover design: germancreative

Blurb: What is the price paid for the creation of a perfect society?

In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.

Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?

As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.

Available here: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks

Add it on Goodreads

Also available: A Change of Mind and Other Stories

And you can follow Nick here:  Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads / Amazon

Cover Reveal: Trust

Look at me making two blog posts in a month! Maybe this will be the start of a slightly more ambitious blogging schedule. Tune in to find out.

I'm happy to share the long awaited cover for my newest (and oldest) book, Trust.

Yes, the first book of my space opera series is finally making its way into your hands! I don't have a release date from the publisher yet, but I'm told it will be before the end of the year, so look for that announcement very soon.

That also means I'm quickly throwing together a blog tour. If you'd like to be part of it (sometime in January), please shoot me an email at jeandavis71@gmail.com or leave a comment here.


At long last, the war that has torn the worlds of the Narvan apart, is over. Anastassia Kazan has brought about the end  to the fighting between Vayen Ta’set’s homeworld of Artor and their rival, Jal. When she offers  Vayen a job on her team of bodyguards, he leaps at the opportunity. He’ll do anything to keep Artor on the path to recovery.

Protecting the paranoid and mercurial woman who’s deals and threats are keeping everyone in line is a tough and thankless task. One drunken night  with Anastassia makes Vayen seriously doubt why he got the job and if he should keep it. But no one else on the team is willing to earn Anastassia’s disfavor by calling her out on her reckless choices. Reckless will get her killed and send the Narvan back into chaos.

Not everyone is happy with Anastassia’s changes on his homeworld and beyond . She’s also on less than friendly terms with her deadly ex-partner. Then Vayen discovers that Anastassia is only middle management. The Council she works for has ambitious plans for the Narvan’s military forces.

How much is Vayen willing to sacrifice to keep the Narvan at peace?

IWSG December: A glance around my office

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here. 

Wow, it's December? Last month flew by in a stream of hosting NaNoWriMo events, book selling events, writing 50,000 words of a YA fantasy novel, and proofing the ARC of my next book. So yes, it was a busy month! I'd say this month is less busy, and technically it is, but it still feels jam-packed. I'm looking forward to January - the month where I (usually) catch my breath.                                                                                                                         I'll be doing a cover reveal here for Trust: Book 1 of The Narvan, in a few days, but until then...                                                                                                                                                                Let's focus on this month's IWSG question: What are five objects we can find in your writing space?

New for NaNoWriMo this November, is my jaunty pirate hat. This year we had an inner-regional word war to help our writers stay motivated. I headed, you guessed it, the pirates. The best part of this hat, was the giant fluffy feather than got in everyone's faces anytime I was nearby. Now it decorates my desk display of books that aren't quite put away between events, since I've had one about every other weekend for a while now.

And if you're wondering, my pirate team sunk our opponents, the ninjas! It was a good battle, made even better by being wordily victorious.

Last year I headed the villain team and also won. I'm sensing I might belong to the dark side.

Just over my head, where I do most of my writing from my comfy chair, is this cabinet. Inside are so many treasures, like a stack of  packages of blank notecards I got for a penny each at a office store sale years ago and seem to be saving for...something. It also houses some of my super old writing that we don't talk about or look at but also can't throw away, a large stash of cassettes from the late 80s and early 90s that I also refuse to part with, and various craft supplies.

One of those crafts is book art, in which I, in one of my many spurts of random craftiness a few years ago, decided to try. I needed something to fill the open spaces in my cabinet and this seemed like the perfect solution. It also mostly hides all the stuff spilling off the shelves behind them. Functional and nice to look at.

Have you ever watched Farscape? No? What's wrong with you? It's one of my favorite shows of the old sci-fi channel, back before they went wonky with a y and focused on stuff like Sharknado. Just. No.

While I love all the characters of that show, Scorpius was my favorite, in all his incarnations. He was a very interesting antagonist and well-rounded. Creepy at times, evil a lot, but also with a compelling backstory. And then we get into the imaginary versions of him. Good times. Now I'm going to have the urge to watch that series again. Darn it, I don't have time for that!

I did a post five years ago on how to make these book page roses. I'd made a bunch of them as an auction item for a NaNo fundraiser. They turned out really nice so I'd also made some for myself. Because I totally need more crafty things hanging around in my writing space to distract me. Remember that time you made roses, they whisper to me. That was fun, what else could you make? You've got a bunch of pages still sitting around in a book somewhere. You should do something with them. Come on.

Evil, taunting craft things. What, you can't hear them too?

Stop and hear the roses wasn't a thing? I swear it was.

One of my long-time favorite crafty things to do is paint. I painted this gargoyle twenty-some years ago. Egads, has it really been that long? (See, lose track of years just as quickly as months.)

So, as it turns out, one of the worst places a distractedly crafty person  can ever work is a craft store. I did. For several years. Oh and several glorious years they were, except for dealing with people (both customers and co-workers), it was heavenly!

You know where you should never put me? In charge of ordering the ceramics and telling me I can paint the display pieces and keep them later. But we had a great selection of  gargoyles, fairies, castles, wizards, and pretty much anything fantasy-oriented in the catalogue.  There are days I miss that job, but the store closed and it was onward to other things for me.

ISWG, NaNoWriMo and Where's My Clone?

If you're not familiar with 
the Insecure Writers Support 
Group, check it out here. 

Full disclosure, as I write this in October, I'm neck deep (as in someone else standing on my shoulders and we're talking about their neck), in NaNoWriMo and preparing for upcoming Author Events for all you book-loving holiday shoppers.  I love when you comment and I'm very glad you stopped by, but I can't promise that I'll get to check out your own blog post in a timely manner.  I will get there. Eventually.  

Hence my need for a clone. Has anyone got that process dialed in yet? I've noticed a trend in my blogging habits the past couple years. With the new year, I'm all refreshed and energized to spend blog time with you wonderful people. By the end of April's A to Z, I'm dead. And things only get worse from there. By mid-summer I'm down to once a month IWSG posts. I'd say this is a trend I'm hoping to change with the coming year, but again, I'm not going to make any promises. Maybe this is a sign I shouldn't dive into A to Z this year. Hmm. Things to ponder.

My tiny assistant Bitsy, kept

me warm while selling books

at Pumpkinfest in

Montague, MI.

So what's this NaNoWriMo thing? It's my yearly major writing binge where I join hundreds of thousands of other people around the world by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Traditionally, that's supposed to be the rough draft of a new novel. This year, I'm aiming for 50K of whatever project my eyeballs and fingers agree on that day. As of this morning, my goal is to work on a total rewrite of 2007's NaNo YA fantasy endeavor that is half finished. I'd like to get another YA title out to accompany A Broken Race. I'd also like to generate a few new short stories to get into submissions early next year. I'd also like to get a million dollars, but as I don't play the lottery, the odds of me productively writing are far more likely.


In the further need for a clone category, I'm also on year 10 of acting as an ML for my region for NaNo. This means I'm organizing and hosting events all month, moderating a forum, writing regional emails and answering questions and encouraging the hundreds of writers in my region. While writing my own project. I also added a few extra tons of insanity and booked three weekend days of author events during November. Because who needs sleep? Can I write in my sleep? We'll find out.

This month's IWSG Question: How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

The dress I made my daughter

for homecoming. She wanted

something 50's housewife.

Oh man, it's been a major evolution. When I first started writing, I had time to paint, draw, do needlework, sew, and more crafts than I could name in the time that I have to write this post. My creative endeavors were all over the board. But since I started writing seriously, about eight years ago, almost all of those things have fallen by the wayside. Though I still enjoy doing other creative things, my brain is stuck in creating worlds, characters, and plots.

I have dipped back into sewing in the past few months. After brushing the mental rust off and a lot of swearing at how hard it is now to thread the damned sewing machine needle even with my glasses on, I think I've got following a pattern and the improvising part of things figured out again. After this next project, which I really should do a post about, is finished, I think I'll put the distracting sewing machine back away. There are so many things I could do with it...but writing calls.

IWSG: October and so much reading

If you're not familiar with 
the Insecure Writers Support 
Group, check it out here. 

When I went on a short vacation at the end of August, I hadn't planned (as usual) to have time to read, but hey, a miracle happened and I did. Yes, we covered my little three book excursion into readingland last month, but it's gotten worse. I've been sucked into an unplanned reading binge. (cue the ominous music)

I haven't done this in a while. And for good reason. All writing stops when I go into reading mode.

Lots of other things stop too, like getting enough sleep, being on time for work, keeping lunch breaks to an hour, maybe hanging out in parking lots in my car for an extra half an hour or longer when running errands... yeah, reading and I have an addictive relationship.

Book shaming time. In the past six weeks, ten days of which I was waiting for shipments of books to arrive, I've read twelve books. And not just short books, 500 to 600+ page books of small type. I even broke down and bought an e-book of one of them because I wasn't near a bookstore at the time. Darn you, J.R. Ward and your Black Dagger Brotherhood.

What makes this series so addicting? It's not your typical paranormal romance. There is a lot going on in the world in which it takes place, lots of action, so many subplots, and lots of well fleshed out POV characters beyond the usual two. Each book ends on a satisfying note, but I had to know what happened next in the greater story. Like. Right. Now. Several of these I read in a day or two. Seriously. And I work full time and have other obligations. Evil damn books! It turns out four hours of sleep is fine on occasion. And...that may or may not be four in a row. Soooooo anyway, yes, I'll be reading the rest of the series soon, but I'm at a good pausing point and I should get back to editing and writing for a little while before November hits.

What started to drive me nuts, because there's always something even when I love a book / author / series. 1. When a word like alacrity gets used a lot, it starts to stand out like sore thumb because it's not a commonly used word. 2. When technology is liberally named throughout a series (like using a Blackberry or hitting send to place a call) and quickly becomes dated.  3. When you read the first book and think certain words and phrases are awesome for characterization, but then realize everyone in the series uses those same words and it's not natural sounding or logical that they would. 4. Overuse of slang. Again, totally cool when a single character uses it because it works for characterization. Not cool when everyone is using natch at the ends of sentences. It's totally not natch.

With reading, preparing for NaNoWriMo, three author events, winterizing my pond before winter this year for a change, still looking for a home for the exchange student we didn't plan on, and getting a head start on sewing my Halloween costume before the week before Halloween... it's been a busy month. From here on out, life only gets more hectic until January. While I'm taking a deep breath and trying not to get freaked out by that last sentence, let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question.

How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?

When I'm stressed, I don't have any energy left over for writing. I have a hard time even focusing on editing. So things like a divorce, death of friends and family, or giving birth tend to lead to dry spells of weeks or months or even a year or two. You've got to take care of yourself. The words will be there when you're head is back in the game.

Has writing helped me through anything? I guess I'm not in jail for taking my frustration out on anyone in a physical manner. There tends to be a lot of death and violence in my books. Coincidence? There's a good chance there's a connection. There is something to that whole, 'the quiet ones are the ones you have to watch out for' thing. However, I do try to keep it fictional. If you've ever been my boss, you're welcome.

IWSG: September and a recharge

If you're not familiar with the Insecure Writers Support Group, check it out here. 

It has been a wild end to summer around here. I managed to take a few days of vacation after sending Trust off to the editor. We traveled over to the thumb of Michigan, having never visited there before. I don't mean to spoil it for you, but there isn't much there other than farmland and the shore of Lake Huron. In this case, that was fine with me as I really needed some time off from life to recharge. I spent most of my vacation buried in a book, which I haven't done in quite some time. That burst of reading cascaded into three more books and now I have four more on order that should be here in a few days. Not that my TBR stacks are running dry by any stretch of the imagination, but I found a new series to binge on: J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. 

I also have a new (and very unplanned) exchange student. That's whole long story, but suffice it to say, we're only an interim host family and this is the straw that sent me off on a need for a reading binge to recharge my creative juices and vacation. 

Onward into the reason for this post... 

This month's question is: What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why?

I've done both a small press and self publishing with novels. For short stories, I prefer the more traditional route of anthologies and magazines. 

As far as novels, for my first one, I wanted to get my feet wet in a more structured way so I went though the whole query letter and rejection loop until I got accepted by a small press. As it turns out that was a whole learning experience and I'm glad I took the time to do it rather than rushing off into self publishing. However, having figured out the strengths and weaknesses of small press publishing and how they aligned with my goals, I opted for self publishing my next three novels. My upcoming series, The Narvan, is back with the same small press. I find doing both gives me more options and yet a bit of credibility for those who don't hold self publishing in high regard.