Playing Catch Up...Again

Since my last post, Twin Flames: Soul Bound was released through Muse It Up Publishing (July 27th) and Twin Flames: Soul Memory was contracted through Muse It Up Publishing (August 3rd). I think it's safe to say I'm on a feakin' high! *laugh* No, not on drugs...just on life itself. Which is all natural. I won't put up the tentative/projected release date as things could change between now and then, however, I will state this...I'm going to be massively busy over the next few months with work! While editing and everything else that goes along with publishing a piece of work, I plan to make more of an effort to get Twin Flames: Soul Destiny completed. I have big plans and things seem to be going along with what those are. A good thing, right? *smile*

As for plans past those stated above? Nope, haven't given it much thought. I do have Twin Flames: Soul Damned in the works as well as Cat's Heart and a few other untitlted ones. The one thing I will be doing is bouncing around and whatever catches my attention that's what I'll be working on. *grin*

So, that's what my recent life has been like. I have a couple spots where I'll be guest posting and doing interviews for Twin Flames: Soul Bound. For a single second I wondered what a complete stranger thought of the ebook. Then I asked myself, did it really matter? Not that I don't care, I do, honest. It's more of if the first person to post about Twin Flames: Soul Bound didn't like it and got nasty about my work and writing (as we all know, people LOVE posting under anything but their own names) it would hurt. I decided to focus on my writing and not completely on what's said about the book. Because I know for every one person who hates it or gets nasty there are just as many (if not more) that love it and gush all about it. It's a give and take, a 50/50 crap shot. I'll look at the positive and leave the negative where it belongs. Nowhere near me. :)

~Alix

July Workings

I'm really horrible at posting regularly, I am working on that though. *smile* As this will attest, I have made an attempt.

July...the wonderful month where summer is in full swing and the heat -recently- has been taken from Hades and Hell themselves respectively. *smirk* I know I'm taking cold showers ofter...and it has nothing to do with the heat level that I'm wirting either, which sucks by the way.

Rewriting...that's what July has been for me. I'm completely rewriting an old piece of work and hoping to get it ready for clean up/critique by the end of the summer. At the earilest. It's the introduction of my Calanthian Hybrids. If Twin Flames: Soul Memory gets picked up and I can finish Soul Destiny, you'll get an introduction to Calanthia and those who dwell there. It's called Cat's Heart and as of right this moment I've reached chapter 6, but I am writing chapter 7...yeah, it's gained a chapter, whoc knew that could happen? I sure didn't think it would. *chuckle* As for the characters? Nastassiya 'Stasya' Lyons-Windcrest my heroine is a royale hybrid who continues to hold her family's vow of protection, even when there are those who want to see her dead. Horace 'Race' Silverthorne (a cousin of Jairo Silverthorne, from Twin Flames: Soul Bound) is my hero and a wonder to create. He's a Hybrid who didn't know he could change forms. He is also the Twin Flame of Stasya. As I said, this is the introduction to my Hybrids so it's also a more in depth intro to Twin Flames. Hope things keep moving along as they are now. Because I am so lovin' this!!

You all have a wonderful weekend. I know I am, I'm heading back into the writers den to see what more I can accomplish...before the heat gets worse! Have a great one. :)

~Alix

Oh boy!! Have Seen Cover Art

I figured, since I bugged an author friend of mine about blogging and keeping in touch with the masses, I had beeter make good on my words. *smirk* So here I am. Typing away here instead of writing away on Gunnar and Raven's story. *sigh* Choices that have to be made. I'll jot a little here then pop back into writer mode and get another scene out before heading to bed...last as usual. *grin*

Alrighty then...Monday I got the cover art for Twin Flames: Soul Bound! Talk about an excitement!! I hopped between being teary eyed and giggling like a school girl. I just didn't know what to do and wanted to do it all at once. *laugh* Yep, that's the emotional roller coaster called an author's life. Either we're throwing things and fits, because our lovely characters aren't doing what we -as their creators- want them to, or we're laughing and crying because all our hard work and long hours absent from society has finally paid off with a coveted contract with a publishing house. Even now, my heart is running faster than I know it should -safely that is- and I feel...well, extremely bouncy. And for me that's sayin' something. Cause I just don't do bouncy. Unless of course there's a trampolin and alcohol involved. Thank God there aren't too many people out there who remember that event!

Anywho...Release date is July 27th and the pre-order option is up at Muse It Up book store, there will now be a cover that I might add is extremely AWESOME!! Of course, it's my first but I can't help but be excited about people seeing it. Lex Valentine did a great job. *happy sigh*

Okay, okay, enough of the mushy mush. *grin* I have got to get back to writing or there won't be a follow up. Ya'll have a great rest of the week and an awesome weekend. Enjoy the summer holidays and wonderful weather. But please, as a person who lives in the western states, refrain from using flamables. We already have too many fires. Please, use caution. :)

~Alix

Sharing the Excitement!

Okay, so I got news that Twin Flames: Soul Bound can be pre-ordered at MuseItUp Publishing. Whoot! Whoot! So, now you can pre-order it through the Muse book store at a discount. Can you say awesome?? *giggle* Okay, okay, so now I have the happiness running through my veins. *sigh* That means I won't be able to sit still to get anything done today. Oh joy! *chuckle* So the question is now...what to do since I can't sit still?

As of right this moment, I've been bouncing around between writing projects. In other words, I haven't completed anything but I have done much writing. I've added scenes to Immortal Council and Immortal Divides. *grin* I've also added to Immortal Choice. Other then that, I've mapped and planned and plotted other ideas that have lodged themselves in my creative brain. No, I haven't worked on Twin Flames: Soul Destiny or Twin Flames: Soul Damned. And no, I haven't heard anything back about Twin Flames: Soul Memory. *sigh* I will eventually head back in their direction and contact the submissions department on Twin Flames: Soul Memory, maybe now that I'm getting closer to the release date for Twin Flames: Soul Bound? *shrug* We'll see.

Alright, I'm jittery again so that means I need to move around for a bit. *laugh* I did mention I couldn't sit still, didn't I? *smirk*

Oh, here's the link to pre-order Twin Flames: Soul Bound if you're so interested. And I thank you beforehand for taking a chance on an unknown author. :)

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=231&Itemid=1

~Alix

Playing Catch Up

That's what I've been doing recently. Playing catch-up. I just finished my final rounds of content edits for Twin Flames: Soul Bound and no am waiting to hear from my Line Editor...but I do have plenty of time for that! *laugh* With a release date of July, 2012 and it only being January, yep, I have time. *smile* So this is what I've been doing with said time...

Going over old manuscripts and rewriting them from the ground up, pretty much. That's right, although they are completed -seven of them to be exact- I'm giving them ALL a complete and full rewrite. For me it's easier then trying to find and only change certain things. Because the type of writer I am is the kind that every time I go through one of my works I change something. Whether it be words, or entire chapters, something ALWAYS get altered from the original. Yes, I know that wasn't something I could do while I was doing edits...so I used restraint...that's not always a good thing while creating something through. And since they are just in their original forms still contractless and all that, I can do it however I wish. So...rewrite it is! *laugh*

I've also spent time researching the subject of Twin Flames/Twin Souls so I understand more of what I am writing. Can't have someone looking at my creation and wondering what planet I haled from...although...that might not be such a bad idea. *grin* Having everyone wonder where in the world these ideas/stories come from...it might make them want to check it out just to see, ya know?

Plus...I've been popping into Twin Flames: Soul Memory as well to see what more needs to be added to make it ready for submission. I know it's still missing something, but so far I've come up short of what exactly that IT is. *smirk* Oh the joys of being a writer! Knowing but not knowing at the same time...crazy, I know. But what writer do you know that is considered 100% sane? I mean, really, who? I know I have my moments as do many of my friend writers/authors. I think we have to have some form of weirdness to be able to create stories and all that, ya know?

Yes, I have also looked in on the third Twin Flames story and am alomst finished with that one. It still is titleless at the moment. I know I'll find the right title in the end, it's just a waiting process...ick! Patience...something I'm not the greatest at. *chuckle* I am learning through.

So, that has been what I've been doing over the weeks since my last post. What have you been doing?

Name Changes

A friend of mine said I come up with the most interesting and uncommon names. Even if she has trouble pronouncing them, she says. Honestly? Commonly known and used names aren’t a fave of mine. Actually, I detest using common names for any of my characters. Which for Joy and Jay is insane, because here are to so commonly used names it’s funny, and those are the names of my two characters.

The story behind Jay and Joy’s names…when I started Twin Flames: Soul Bound earlier this year it was to be a short 7000 word entry for a contest. I just wanted to write it that was all. And the main characters were fashioned after two real life people. So I took the first two letters of their names -birth names- and went with it. A lot of times I’ll rewrite a story twice -to as many as ten times- because the names aren’t right. Whether it’s the heroine’s name or the hero’s, names will stop my story telling ability in its tracks. When that happens I dig out the baby name books -yes, I have like six different ones as well as list from the internet and jotted down names that I’ve heard somewhere but they aren’t in the books or on line- and start my search. Once a name catches my eye I add it in to the space left behind by its previous owner and start reading. If it works I’m off and running. If not *sigh* back to the books and lists to find another one. More often than not my problem only runs into either the male or female characters, not both. Only once has it been both main characters -which killed the manuscript halfway through- as of this posting. *grin*

Recently I had to change ‘Jay’s’ name to his birth name. Because -I guess- readers aren’t fans of names being so close…aka Jay and Joy…confusing…only one letter different. Funny thing about that? The only time I’ve done names that close are when dealing with twins and even then it’s not when they are together in a story. *laugh* I won’t name names but it was my content editor that brought it to my attention. Now, not too long ago I was told -by other writers- not to pick names that were hard to pronounce. I have to laugh at it, because I chose ‘Jay’s’ name for the strict purpose of avoiding having to change it. *snicker*And I ended up having to change it anyway. I am SO glad I give each of my character’s two names. *laugh* To me it makes them more real life. I don’t go by my birth name and most of my friend don’t either. Hell, I bet some -again I won’t name names- hate the ones they were given at birth so prefer nicknames. *grin* I know many who aren’t a fan of the name their parents bestowed upon them.

I am so glad I give my characters a birth name as well as a nickname.