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Tag: dahlia adler

Weekly Recap

Published March 27, 2016

Hi, friends! I’ve been radio silent for the past few weeks dealing with an avalanche of deadlines and a tyranny of promotional events (including for the stellar A Tyranny of Petticoats anthology, in which I have a story)! So this weekly recap will actually be for the past few weeks. Mea culpa.

 

The Past Few Weeks In New Releases

 

The Past Few Weeks in Cover Reveals

(I know I missed a TON, so I apologize!)

 

These Past Few Weeks in Internet Reading

Moneyball for Book Publishing – Reader habits data and what it could mean for how books get produced down the line.

What Authors Can and Can’t Control in Traditional Publishing

On writing a “middle-finger book” from Nova Ren Suma. I feel this deeply.

“I just don’t identify with the character” – an in-depth look at how editors and publishers perpetuate homogenous identities and experiences in children’s literature, and how they can create lasting and meaningful diversity.

 

These Past Few Weeks in Writing

(ie, why I’ve sucked at blogging lately)

Finished line edits on A Darkly Beating Heart! This was a mad, exhilarating sprint and I’m in such a better place now about this book.

Finished up a slew of freelance work.

Loads and loads of fun promotional events for A Tyranny of Petticoats!

Write some fun bonus material for a forthcoming promotional effort for The Witch Who Came In From the Cold. More information soon . . .

Great progress on Ghosts of Grimley, my first foray into middle grade.

I’ve finished the outline and I’m full steam ahead on my next YA project, which will also be my Camp NaNoWriMo draft for April.

…And finally, I’m writing a Valentin POV story as a gift for everyone who signs up for my newsletter on or before April 19th, to celebrate the paperback releases of Sekret and Skandal! (There’s loads of other goodies in the #SekretSkandal giveaway too, so don’t miss out!)

P.S.: If you’d like to keep up with me and all my wild writing pursuits, plus use a great project tracker for your own writing, join me on My Write Club!

The Past Few Weeks in Reading

 

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Weekly Recap

Published February 14, 2016

New Releases

 

Cover Reveals

 

This Week in Writing

I turned in revisions for A Darkly Beating Heart! Unburdened at last, I slumbered for aeons and awoke to bluebirds at my window and a gentle melody of hahaha just kidding I got really drunk and played Heroes of the Storm and then started a new book because I hate myself or something.

Started drafting a middle grade novel. Guys. Middle grade is FUN. It’s short and straightforward and can be utterly absurd and holy crap I just might write this book in record time. It helps that I technically have written this book a few times before. I concocted it way back in 2004, when I first thought that writing children’s literature might be fun. Then I wrote it in 2010 as a NaNoWriMo YA novel, but it felt a little too young. Now at long last, I’ve worked up my MG nerve and I’m loving every word.

Decent progress on freelance work. See: unburdened; really drunk.

Favorite line written: My life got a whole lot more interesting after I died.

 

This Week in Other Stuff

Beyonce’s splendid, self-assured “Formation” set the op-ed sections on fire, but my favorite so far comes from Camryn Garrett.

Cassandra Clare is no stranger to plagiarism accusations, but this new lawsuit from adult urban fantasy writer Sherrilyn Kenyon makes me deeply concerned about the future potential for people to claim ownership of tropes, mythology, and the very pillars of certain subgenres.

Skull Poop L is smashing R-rated comic book records, and rightfully so. Husband and I immensely enjoyed ourselves and look forward to plenty more Merc-with-a-Mouth movies to come.

Can it just please be May 6th already. Me and my feels need to go writhe on the floor a bit.

Played through Firewatch, a gorgeous but weird mid-life crisis of a game, with Husband. I imagine I might have felt very differently about this game were I younger, and that makes me feel sad and old but also thankful for all that I have.

Reading Now

JUST VISITING (Dahlia Adler) was SO FREAKING GOOD. The ultimate best-friendship book with secrets, rawness, struggles, self-reinvention, and 8 different kinds of yearning. I want a million more.

. . . and beta-reading a friend’s phenomenal dark, twisty, gloriously villainous YA fantasy. Agents, lmk if you’re interested–you want this book <3

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Weekly Recap

Published February 7, 2016

New Releases

 

The Witch Who Came In From the Cold’s second episode released this week from Cassandra Rose Clarke, and we got an awesome review from Ilana C. Myer on Tor.com!

Cover Reveals

 

On the Web This Week

A further conversation discussing the Diversity in Publishing survey results, and why it’s so damn hard to get publishers to take risks.

Self-publishers becoming boutique publishers, banding together for better marketing and leverage.

Justina Ireland provides an introduction to the diversity conversation and soundly debunks some of the most comment protestations on the need for diversity.

 

Writing This Week

  • Second pass on my revisions for A Darkly Beating Heart. Involving even more tearing apart and putting back together. Some motivations have changed, sending ripples throughout the manuscript, and doing my damnedest to hunt them all down.
  • Prepped about 70% of the outline for my next project, which I’ll start writing when ADBH edits are off next week. This one’s been sitting in my head for over a decade and enjoyed a brief incarnation as a YA NaNoWriMo book in 2010, but it’s getting turned into something else entirely. Not sure if I want to look at the old draft, or if I should just plunge onward!
  • No real word count to speak of. Boo, editing.

 

Reading, Watching, Playing

My husband is prepping a fun witch hunter/Bloodborne-esque D&D campaign and we decided to watch The Last Witch Hunter for ~aesthetic~. We expected nothing but thoroughly enjoyed it!

Li-Ming, the Diablo III wizard, released in Heroes of the Storm. Unsurprisingly, she is my new favorite and I’m having far too much fun being a vicious little glass cannon with laser beams.

If you haven’t seen the music video for Genghis Khan yet, just stop what you’re doing and go.

And I’ve been reading . . .

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Weekly Recap

Published January 31, 2016

The Witch Who Came In From the Cold is live!!! Read or listen to Episode 1 FREE right now:

coldwitch

New Releases of Note

 

Cover Reveals

 

On the Internet

The 2015 Diversity in Publishing survey is out and, to no one’s surprise, publishing is overwhelmingly the domain of straight white women. Why does this matter? For starters, it reflects the extent to which low salaries, unpaid internships, stringent educational requirements and more serve to limit access to publishing jobs. Then it leads to in-group bias in editorial decisions and acquisitions–straight white women tend to favor books written by and about straight white women, and can be shockingly blind to insensitivities and offenses in the work they choose to promote. That’s how we get multiple children’s books featuring smiling slaves and the parade of unending Nazi romances, just to point to a few recent examples. Readers and writers can and should do more to promote the diverse voices among us–actually promote, as in buying books and boosting others’ voices instead of talking over/for them–but publishers need to take a long, hard look not only at their own editorial board but at their hiring practices and recruiting process. Daniel Jose Older has more, especially on the tendency to confuse the calls for better representation with censorship.

 

Heather Webb on time management for writers.

Kameron Hurley gets righteous about publishing contracts, including my oh-so-despised non-compete clause.

 

In Writing

  • Revisions on A Darkly Beating Heart. Lots and lots of revisions. With more to come.
  • Final chapters outlined for rhymes-with-“fey hairwolves.” Now, to have free time to finish drafting it . . . !
  • Long potential career path chats with a friend, leading to settling on next project.
  • Freelance work.

As it’s the end of January, I’ll give my monthly writing total, which is also my yearly total for 2016: 29,107 words. Ugh. Ew. Yuk.

January and February are historically my worst months for word counts. Aside from the fact that I always seem to be in the midst of substantive edits for contracted books in January (and this year is no exception), thus taking away from my drafting time, I do seem to struggle with seasonal affect during this time. The post-holiday malaise is real, too, and my motivation bottoms out around this time. I know, however, that once I turn in ADBH revisions, I will feel so light and ecstatic. As I’m aiming to do so in one week, I’m going to grit my teeth, get through my final pass, and then look forward to joyous, joyous drafting for the rest of February.

Therefore, I am setting my February word count goal for 45,000 words.

 

Events!

I’ll be at New York City Teen Author Festival in March!

An Evening of Treachery at McNally Jackson

Mega Book Signing

 

I’ll also be at Northern Virginia Teen Book Festival and the Tyranny of Petticoats Launch Party earlier in March.

 

 

What I’ve Been Reading

 

 

How was your week in reading and writing? What are you planning for February?

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Weekly Recap

Published January 17, 2016

A weekly recap of reading, writing, and random nerdery.

New Releases I’m Excited For

Amazing cover reveals and book announcements!

DBH_finalart

(Oh, hey, that last one’s mine!)

 

Tristina Wright sold her “queer teens in space” saga to Entangled Teen.

Poe Dameron is getting his own comic book series.

 

Recommended reading:

 

Writing things accomplished:

  • Smoothed some emotional inconsistency in A Darkly Beating Heart. Still revising.
  • Completed sample chapter of potential YA proposal. Loved the spooky dark unstable exchange between heroine and villain. May have hugged my laptop on the train.
  • Started drafting Act III of rhymes-with-“fey hairwolves” project. Time to start answering questions (at least a few of them) about how all this wacky science fantasy works!
  • Realized I’d written myself into a corner on the dumb sithbaby fanfiction. Reaffirmed why yes, seriously, I need to outline. Beat head against wall for a bit.
  • Wrote lots of promotional material for The Witch Who Came In from the Cold and the A Tyranny of Petticoats anthology, both of which launch soon!

Still mainly in revising/promotional mode, so my 2016 word count isn’t doing too hot so far. February promises to be much better, however.

I wrote a detailed post on how I drastically improved my drafting speed and writing output in 2015, and people seemed to like it! Maybe you will, too!

 

Other Tidbits

The AMPAS announced their 2016 Oscar nominees and, with #OscarsSoWhite you need sunscreen, I’ve almost entirely written these awards off. Some smart people said smart stuff about it: Tu Books’s infographic on the (lack of) diversity in Oscars, incredible performances by non-white actors that were snubbed, responding to AMPAS’s “conspiracy” tweet. I will confess a tiny thrill that Mad Max: Fury Road (one of my top movies of 2015) got several nods, though none for that amazing soundtrack that fueled at least 50% of my 2015 writing time.

Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) hosted Saturday Night Live last night, and the Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base skit was everything I’d hoped for.

That Dragon, Cancer, an independent game created by a man coping with his own son’s terminal illness, released this week. I haven’t played it yet, but with the cancer-related deaths of greats David Bowie and Alan Rickman this week, I’m going to have to stock up on tissues to tackle this one.

 

How’s 2016 treating you so far?

 

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