Hello my lovelies!

I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting my blog, but if you’ve been around for awhile, you know that radio silence (except for the tweets and sporadic FB posts) means deadline brain for Shauna.

I’ve had a lot of projects going on and they’ve been taking a lot of out me lately. I’m actually juggling about four different projects in four different stages.

You’ll remember that a couple of weeks ago I revealed my super-secret-smexy pen name. With a pen name that means extra writing. So I finished two novellas for that persona last month, editor extraordinaire, Cassie, fixed and polished one and made it publication ready. And it is published, over here (and here and here and here). But her schedule is so full because she is so awesome that novella number two won’t hit her desk until the first of September. In the meantime I’m supposed to be writing novella number 3, and I am, but very slowly.

I realized last month that, since January, I’ve written over 250,000 words. Look at that again, over a quarter of a million words. That is insane. And totally explains why around June-July my brain said, “Nope. You’re done. That’s quite enough for now.” But it’s never enough, not if you’re a full-time writer, trying to live off your writing. And my readers have let me know you and all of them are WAITING. Patiently. But nonetheless WAITING.

So, I started Novella #3, which is the third in the Roxy Quinn novellas since I managed to get six of the Taryn Malloy novellas out and bundled them into two omnibuses. 

And the other project I’m working on is the first in a brand-spanking-new trilogy. I have just finished draft number three! Woot! Which means it’s ready for le editor extraordinaire part deux. As I said before, Cassie is so awesome her schedule is slammed, so I am working with a new editor on this project, the equally awesome Lauren.

Editing, proofing and revising is kind of insane. Usually when you edit, you cut, cut, cut and add a little here and there. But it is a lot of cutting, a lot. But not this book, not this time. This time, with each draft I’ve added more words than I’ve cut. I had planned on this book being around 75k words, instead it is toeing the line at 100k. A huge part of those 250k+ words I mentioned. But hey, we like big books, right? Right.

So, my hubs is beta reading the book right now (and thank gods because he’s caught three, yes, THREE, mistakes so far. And I don’t me typos, I mean errors in the story). And Lauren will rip it apart and help me put it back together. Then, after all that, three amazing writer friends of mine, Nicole, Brian and Leah, will read it and critique it and rip it apart some more and hopefully offer some band aids to fix it. And who knows what the word count will be then.

I wrote this book in the month of Feb, the opening scene was stuck in my head and really wanted out. It’s a genre I’ve never written before, I read it and enjoy it, but never tried my hand at it. So this time around we’re dealing with a Post-Apocalyptic Paranormal story with a strong romance subplot (you’re welcome). With a little pressure from my cover artist, I finally came up with a title, which I’m excited to share with you, but not just yet. When I do the cover reveal you will know. Speaking of, I can’t wait to see what Stephanie comes up with. Steph, you’ll remember, did the covers for Air, Water, Fire and Spirit. She is awesomesauce and I am excited.

So, all of that is going on and I’m brainstorming my next novel. I have another novel complete and proofed and already beta read, but I have been trying to shop that with agents and editors. I’ve had a few bites, and some lines are still out there, waiting to be heard from, but nothing too exciting yet. I would love to have both, self-published and traditionally published books out in the world. But I knew the Dystopian/Post-Apoca genre is kinda saturated right now and most agents don’t want any more of those subbed, but I really like this book (I think) so I want it out there for readers, so it’s getting self-published. I’m thinking of a December release. Official date to come. Soon.

But that next book I just mentioned. I want to start outlining it in September, after novella #3 is in Cassie’s hands and I don’t have to think about it anymore. I had an agent reach out to me after the revelation of my pen name and said she was looking for the genre I write under that name. Super excited to hear that, I decided I would try to write a full length erotic novel, but you know me, it’s gotta have some magic in it. So I’m going with Urban Fantasy again and I already know what species the main character will be and what her struggle is. I’m just not sure what her story for this one contained book will be, but I think she has the potential for a strong, long series. Here’s hoping I can do it well and the agent will want it once it’s done!

So in Sept, I start outlining that book to start writing in October. I have a January 1st deadline with Cassie, so that just gives me three months to have it written and proofed. Which means, I’ll probably be doing NaNoWriMo again this year to help me get it done in time.

All that and I have finally succumbed to the desire to cut my hair. I realized I’d had my hair long for three years, after spending two years growing it out, and it hasn’t really changed much in those three years. I’ve always liked changing my hair but I had missed having long hair so I held on to it for a long time. But with working so much I tended to just pull it up into a top knot 5 days out of the week, which isn’t awesome. So two weeks ago I did the first chop, which I really liked the look of, but it was a shoulder-length cut and I’m not a shoulder-length kinda girl. That length always feels like an in-between, like growing out short hair. It’s not the length I’m going to keep it. So that meant calling my stylist again within two weeks for the real chop. And now I’m much happier. Yeah, I already miss the long hair, but that’s okay, I can always grow it out again.

Now. Back to real writing.