I don’t even know what is happening. My brain is a swirly whirl of so many thing, too many things. Where even am I?
Oh right, late on the entry. Hello, feral readers. I hope everyone is excited to sink their teeth into my book! Things are moving, wheels are turning, progress is being made. The deadline remains at the end of August. I’ve also been informed that I can add to my first print run, so I’m hoping to be able to set up some sort of pre-order or sign-up for signed first print run copies on my website once I get the pricing. It will be a tight window so hopefully I can get as many of you wonderful humans who want a signed physical copy in on it. More on this as the information unfolds! (Mostly when the price is locked in.) Hopefully, by the next time you’re reading a post I have all this sorted out. In other news I FINALLY managed to get through the first edits on Waning of the Moon, but only the first chapter. It’s progress. Slow, steady, and brutally painful, but progress none the less. I expect it will take me an age before I am confident enough to send this to the betas and an additional age before it goes to the publisher. I am hoping the I generate enough of a fan base to get a Kickstarter sorted out for book two pre-orders so that I do not have to beg everyone that feels an emotional attachment to me for the means to publish... again. Other than that I’m going to try my hand at being DM (dungeon master) in D&D (Dungeon& Dragons) coming up in a few weeks. It will be a one-time game but I’m already freaking out about it. It will be fine... totally fine... maybe. Or I’ll just lose a husband and some dear friends because they hated everything I did. I guess we’ll have to roll the dice on this one to find out. (This might be a mistake as my dice rolls have never been reliable. Where is the Lucky feat when you need it!) So, there’s a little update for you. I hope the season is not burning you up into a crisp. I wish you big hats and parasols.
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I have never been more subconsciously anxious in my entire life. It feels like my insides are literally screaming at all times. I have so much nervous energy that I cleaned my house at 6am this morning, before I went to my day job. I’m fairly certain my neighbors want my head on a pike.
Why, you may be wondering, am I so anxious? I sent out my advanced reader copies last week. I already know about a plethora of corrections that are needed, that I, in fact, have already made to the proof, but my advanced readers will be seeing the mistakes, the missteps, the flaws I so desperately tried to hide. So, the OCD driven perfectionist in me is screaming at the top of her lungs. Gods, help me. Athena, goddess of wisdom, give me aid! Freya, you cunning goddess, please sooth my intrepid mind! Okay, those are the goddesses I always have on hand, but if you have anyone else I should be calling to please let me know. Maybe I should be calling on Morpheus to make my dreams a reality, anyone with the divine power to make this novel succeed and not fail... how many goats do I need to sacrifice? The sane part of me, or rather the logical part, (I’m not sure there is any sanity left in me), knows that my advanced readers will not be getting back to me for some time. My release is still teetering about the late August release date. Confirmation of the date will come with a single week’s notice because that’s just how the small presses operate. In other news, I am so psyched for SIWC (Surrey International Writers Conference) this year! Even though tickets are not on sale just yet, but you know I’m going to be on that webpage at 0 hour. I’m hoping desperately to get my book on the roster for the in-house book store, but if I can’t pull that off I will be selling copies out of the trunk of my car or the door of my hotel room? No matter what I’ll make sure copies are available. I’m currently working on a couple of short stories for the writing contest at the conference. I’m not expecting to win, but worst case scenario I’m out $30 for the entry fees and I’ve supported an organization that I love. Waning of the Moon edits have sort of halted before they even really began. I started piecing together the POVs that I wrote and then my first proofs and ARCs came in and I rushed into that, leaving the edits in the dust. I’ll get back to them soon. I know I have some betas dying to know what the next chapter in Sol’s saga is... it’s messy and heart breaking just as a little heads up. This beast is going to take a lot of finessing. I’ve learned so much over the last year through the publishing process. I think I’m coming out a better writer on the other side of all of this... I hope Dawning of the Sun came out a better novel and I hope that I just keep getting better at this whole writing thing. Hope. I use that term a lot. Despite the decaying state of the world and society I still have that spark of light humming gently at the back of my heart, looking towards a future with less mess and more creation. So, fingers crossed that my career as a writer is about to kick off with a bang and some much needed luck. How is it May already? Did anyone else feel like they time travelled? Where have I even been this whole time? It feels like I’m only just waking from a long and disorienting hibernation... Wait, is my brain a bear? It would explain so many things...
Anyways, here we are. Dawning of the Sun has been officially finished. All the edits are done and the manuscript is being submitted for interior layout sometime this week! This means a lot of things. Mostly it means that once that layout has been approved (by me), advanced reader copies will be sent out! To those of you who have agreed, I thank you. For anyone who does reviews, has a book influencer account of any kind, etc feel free to contact me to request an ARC copy. I am so happy to be able to share my work and please spread the word! Pirates! Ships! Sword fights! Promiscuity! Banter! It's all there. I know that at least a few fantasy readers will enjoy it. On the Waning of the Moon front, it would appear that the first draft will likely be completed this month! *Gasp!* Yes, only two years instead of 16 to write a manuscript. I’m improving. My betas will be on the edge of their seats to hear this news, but sadly many many many edits will be needed before this manuscript can be looked upon by sane mortals. I’m already aware of many kinks and missing details that will need to be addressed, sorted, categorized, re-thought, and executed (pun intended). << This is funny on a lot of levels but mostly because there are a lot of deaths in Waning of the Moon, the second book in the Aeternum series, if you haven’t been following along. So, once that beast is complete and I move to the edits phase, I will not leave the writing alone. I plan to keep writing and get a good grip and start on the next manuscript, Eventide of the Crown, book three of the Aeternum series. I was calling it book 2.5 for a while, but I have changed my mind, despite the fact that it occurs at the same time as book two. It’s fiiiine... mostly... probably. So there’s a little insight into the goings on behind the scenes of the scenes of my works. Dawning of the Sun is on track to be released at roughly the end of August. I’m excited and terrified. I’ll keep you posted on the goings on and when the pirates will be sailing into your hands. We’re getting closer and closer to that finish line, but really isn’t it just the starting line? On the seventh day I hath risen... from a viral pestilence that plagued by tonsils. I was out cold for basically the last six days. I was a curled-up incubator of viral infestation, and I lost nearly a week of my life, of myself to this monstrosity.
But, I’m relatively sound of mind now, even though my body is still trying to catch up to that point. So, here’s a little Dawning of the Sun update. I submitted my final pass for copy edits on the final day of March. The manuscript has been handed over to an undisclosed proofreader who I pray is working quickly but ever diligently to review the basically final state of my manuscript. It’s terrifying. I don’t know if I’m happy with how it is... there are so many little things I feel like I should be improving. A million tiny oversights that some reader will inevitably point out to me and I’ll find myself pulling my hair out over once the thing is in print. When I spoke to my editor she said, “Don’t change too much, it’s ready.” Are you insane?! Are you out of your fucking mind?! How could it possibly be ready?! I’ve only spent the last 17 years (yes, 17) working on this story, this world, this brain spawn. At some point I need to let it go. By the time this is a physical book in your hands the story itself will be graduating high school. (I’m cringing on the inside to know it took me that long to figure all this out.) I pray to the muses, to the literary gods, that Waning of the Moon the second iteration of the Aeternum Series will not need so much mental incubation and, let’s face it, trial and error in the writing process. Everything is on track. Despite some setbacks with the publishing process, it does appear that my personal timeline for release will be met. The way my aggregate publisher works is that I will not be getting a release date until the book itself is complete. Once everything is essentially ready to hit the presses I’ll get a date and it will be a 3-5 day window between me finding out the date and the release date itself. It will be a fast turnaround from me screaming the date all over any social media I can access to the actual release date. This is my first book, my first time ever dealing with any sort of publisher and oh boy is all this weird and overwhelming and confusing. So, stay tuned to find out if this whole process will break me. If you want a couple of reels from me between posts, find me on the social medias, I’m everywhere under some version of “mekalous”. Thank you for coming to my almost death bed, we appreciate your business. (I might not be as sound of mind as I thought.) I am still waiting for my copy edits! I’m pulling out my hair over this. I want them, I need them! I want to get this harrowing process underway!! I am desperately hoping that this delay is because my editor is going through my work with a fine-toothed comb rather than just leaving it in her to-do pile. (Due to the way that my aggregate publisher operates I do not have direct contact with her so I can’t even ask!)
It’s not like I’ve just been sitting twiddling my thumbs doing nothing... I have been doing other stuff... and things. I have been working on the first draft of the Aeternum Series Book Two. It’s closing in on the final scenes. I’m hoping that the muses will smile on me until the final punctuation, but likely those fickle little... [insert curse word of your choice] will abandon me at the worst possible time and the manuscript will just hang over my head for a long time before they return. I’ve also been working on my “social media presence” ugh. I feel gross just typing it... but I’m trying to make “engaging posts” and trying to reach out to book influencer type humans that might want an advanced reader copy (date TBD) to post something about my little book. If you’re one of those, please contact me! I’ve also been reaching out to all-grown-up authors with books out in the world to see if they would be willing to write a blurb for my cover! So far it’s a resounding silence... and a few “too busy for that, good luck though.” Well... I can’t win them all right? I would honestly be happy with just one author that would agree to do such a thing. But this whole process has taught me that if you want something done, likely you’re going to have to do it yourself. Although that may not apply here seeing as how I can’t write a blurb for my own cover... or can I? No, no. That would just be all kinds of self-indulgent and weird. I’m also pretty excited that my other half has bought me a brand-new laptop that converts to a tablet so that I can do pen edits without printing 200 pages and basically contributing to mass deforestation. So there’s a little update on the goings on in my written worlds. If you don’t already, please follow me on the social medias and possibly give me some insights into how to get noticed. I’m like a child tugging on the internet's shirt trying to get it to look at me... and it’s far too busy with its internetting to bother. |
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AuthorM.E. Kalous studied English, humanities, and publishing at Simon Fraser University. She has a deep love of Greek and Norse mythology and all things related to the Inferno. She is a voracious reader of fiction, fantasy, fairy tales, and sci-fi. Archives
July 2024
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