Goodbye July, Hello August

 I spent July traveling across Michigan meeting readers. From Lansing, to Lake Orion, and then back to Grand Haven in West Michigan. Whew! It was a fun filled month of books, dragons, presenting writing panels, and even superhero wedding! 

Kogan Con - Grand Haven, MI

Michigan Medieval Faire - Lake Orion, MI

Capital City Comic Con - Lansing, MI

July was also Camp Nano, in which I plugged away at a book I'm writing for me at this point, wherein *spoiler alert* I'm killing people, crying about it, and processing the fact that they are dead. In theory, this may free me up to delve into other non-Narvan stand-alone books...like the pile of them on my hard drive glaring at me to be finished. As of the end of the month, I added 40,000 new words to the novel. Since my original goal was to add 20K, I'm calling that a definite win. Yes, Seeker is still the last book of the core series. If this tragic tale eventually gets to your eyes, it will be a companion novel like Minor Years.  

Oh, and dammit, I already have ideas where I could go after this. But no! No! Must, concentrate on stand-alone books for a while! 

I'm also still percolating on the last 2/3 of Frayed, which is slowly making its way through my local writing group chapter by chapter and finishing it is currently slated to be my project for NaNo 2022 unless I can make this Narvan book shut up and work on it before then. 

After such a busy July, I'll be spending August resting. Right? Ha. You're funny.

You can find me:

August 6 - Holland Art in the Park

August 13&14 - South Haven Blueberry Festival

August 27 & 28 Michiana Renaissance Faire 

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

That brings us to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question:  When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?

The first draft of everything I write is for me. Sorry, readers. But hey, I'm a reader too and I have to wait for the words to leech out of my fingers onto the page to enjoy them. Trust me, you're getting the far better end of the deal here. Once the story gets to you, it's a smooth ride (hopefully) and far more coherent (definitely). 

Readers get much more consideration once a draft enters editing. I often move things around or cut bits entirely to make the story flow better, faster, or be more engaging for everyone who is not in my twisted head.

As far as being original, I would think that's something we all strive for. Originality comes with adding your own voice to any story. All the plots may have been done before, but its what you do with them that makes them unique.