BMTL Update

I know I haven't updated since March 21st, but I've been busy with edits and planning all things story related and it's just been madness! You never really know how much work you have to put into a novel until you actually finish one and the real fun begins! 

My critique partner has helped A LOT and she's introduced me to Susan Dennard's blog and her amazing Writing Advice Page. She has amazing advice on there from writing your book and all the way up to writing synopsis and query letters and agents and critique partners/beta readers! Everything is so detailed and it helps A LOT. Some of it may make me hyperventilate and stress, but it also takes a lot of stress on wondering, "What comes next?"

Her revising steps have really helped a lot. I've never been to this stage with a story before, so it's all new to me. I've followed her steps so far and have kind of created my own twists to some of it. I'm almost up to the point where it's time to get down to business and start working on the second draft. 

And not only that, but I have some other news too. I've always wondered how authors were able to have different books or series going at one time and though I'm still freaked out about that, I think I kind of understand it now. 

Normally I'm a one book gal, but since I'm in the revising stages right now for Bring Me To Life, and it's my MAIN focus, I'm also working on outlining BTML book two to get that rolling and on top of that there has been a book idea in my head for months now. Since maybe around December/January and more has come up in that and now it's up to the point where I basically know what happens in all three books for that trilogy. I actually have more things worked out for the first book right now than I did when I first started BTML. 

So on the side I've started planning it too. I'll be working on it, but if it starts getting in the way of my editing BMTL and on the planning stages of BMTL's sequel, then I'll have to put the other idea on hold, since, like I said, BMTL is my main focus. 

I may have a synopsis up soon for BMTL, I made myself a deadline--which I can't remember right now, I'll have to check my calendar--for it so I should be on that soon. :) 

I don't really want to say much about my new project yet, though. So maybe in a couple of months I'll be able to mention it. All I can say is so far I think it may become a trilogy, and it's paranormal with some romance, but romance isn't the MAIN focus. 

So stay tuned! And happy writing! :-)

Rough Draft = Done!

Yep, you see the title right. The rough draft of BMTL is DONE! I finished it at 11:52 p.m. on March 19th. This is a BIG deal for me, I've never finished a book before. NEVER. I always start them and then get new ideas in the middle of writing them and then POOF, I change over to the other.

But I stuck with this idea. This idea was THE idea. I couldn't have stopped writing it even if I wanted to. I can't wait until I get all the revisions done and the re-write and get it all fixed up and pretty to send it to agents. I want to be able to share this story with everyone. I want everyone to know my characters as well as I do. Care for them as much as I do.

I'm still in shock I finished. I've been working on this non-stop basically for nearly four months. The 28th of March would have been four months. The deadline I gave myself was July 1st! And I beat that by a little over three months.

I've decided to give myself a break from it until Monday. My son's 2nd birthday party is on Sunday and we've been so busy with that and getting things ready for our new bedroom suite to come in! I've been dreaming of a small break, but now that I'm on it, I don't know what the heck to do!

I had so many things running through my mind. Getting caught up on shows, catching up on some reading (Though that's impossible!), relaxing, going to bed early. But hardly any of that has happened! I can't seem to turn my mind off. I'm twitchy wanting to grab my printed out copy of my manuscript and attacking it with a red pen.

But I'm going to wait until Monday.

My next step with this book is, like I said, going through it and attacking it with a red pen. I'm going to go through it, make notes. And then I'll go through my wonderful critique partner's notes and add all of them together, and then start working on the outline for the second draft.

Once that is done, it's beta reader time! :) And then I'll keep going through the process of it until it's somewhat ready to be sent off to Agents. Super nervous about that. My heart is starting to beat really fast just THINKING of that. But I just need to remember that I won't get anything done and start working toward my dream until I send it to them. And it only takes ONE yes. :D

Hopefully I'll start getting better at updating this blog! I've been so bad with it so far. Hopefully I'll update soon!

Almost there!

Okay, so I suck at updating a writing blog. The only blog I have ever been able to keep up with and update is my book reviewing blogs. That's a bit sad. But anyway, the last time I updated about being at my halfway point, it was January 6th (42 days after starting this rough draft) and now two months later (Almost four months after beginning) I've reached 70K, which was my goal.

I'm currently past 72K now, and I still have a bit more to write. I only have about six chapters left that I had planned and an epilogue, so after then the rough draft will be...done. That's so crazy! I'm so excited, but also amazed and shocked and my anxiety is kicking in.

I have a new critique partner, who is AMAZING, and I still have Michele Byrd looking over this rough draft. They are the only two people who have seen anything of this rough draft so far, and I can't wait to finish so I can get started on the second draft. I plan on going through and reading it and making thousands of notes and then creating one huge novel outline, and then re-writing it.

*cue anxiety* 

It's going to be a lot of work,but really worth it in the end. :) Once the second rough draft is done, I'll probably start picking up some beta readers to read it, so if anyone happens upon this blog and is interested, e-mail me!

[Book Review] Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick

Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush, #2)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Released: October 19, 2010
Pages: (Hardcover) 427
Young Adult

Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. A mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever (if that's possible) and what's worse, he seems to be spending time with Nora's archenemy, Marcie Millar.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude, Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feelings that he is hiding something.
If that weren't enough, Nora is haunted by images of her murdered father, and comes to question whether her Nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death. Desperate to figure out what happened, she puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations to get the answer. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts.

When I first started Crescendo, I was in a reading slump since I had been pouring all of my extra time into writing, and so I didn't read much in the beginning. I read the first book, Hush, Hush, back in July 2010 (You can read my review of it on my old review blog here and it's also on my Goodreads.)and though I liked it a lot, it wasn't a favorite.

I've been meaning to read this sequel ever since, but haven't gotten around to it until now. I couldn't get into it right away, but after I picked it up again when I had some free time and wanted to read, I really got into it. I started it up again a few nights ago and haven't been able to put it down. Last night I stayed up until three in the morning reading it!

You don't see as much of Patch in this book as you do in the first book, which I was kind of sad about since I had grown to really like Patch. But the times he is in here you're kind of suspicious about him, at least I was. Though I was still sitting there like:

You get to meet a new character as well, Scott, who moves back to Coldwater with his mom and who has a lot of dark secrets. For the longest time I didn't trust him one bit, nor did I really like him much, but now because of the end of the book I hope he comes up in the next two books so we can learn more about that. 

Nora, as always, kind of annoys me with how she acts with some things and always gets herself into more trouble, BUT she does stand up for herself and tries to do things alone without having to ask a guy for help which doesn't come up very often in YA. Normally YA girls are always damsels in distress who need saving every five minutes and who actually call for it. Though she does need saving quite a bit, but she doesn't call for it she tries to fix it herself. 

And Vee, Nora's best friend, I didn't like her much in the first book; she annoyed me quite a bit. She still does annoy me a bit, that's just her nature, but I've grown to love her. :) I especially love her and Nora's relationship. 

And Rixon, God, I thought he was awesome for a while, but wow. I'm not going to go into those details. 

I'm really glad Nora reveals some answers of secrets she didn't even know about in this book. I love the mystery edge to it mixed in with the fallen angels. I definitely can't wait to get my hands on the next two books after that cliff hanger. Seriously left off mid scene and I thought I was going to throw the book across the room, though I really wouldn't do that. I promise. 

Becca has a great way of creating lots of detail that pulls you in and makes you believe everything in the book is really happening. My husband had to repeat things a million times and then finally start banging on stuff to get my attention quite a few times while I was reading it. I was so intrigued by everything my eyes just couldn't catch up to how fast I really wanted to read. 

Overall, I liked this a lot more than the first book and I need to get my hands on the next two books. Will definitely try my best to read them back to back so I can finish the series. Though I have a feeling I'm going to be upset when the series ends. I'm still upset right now that I finished Crescendo because I'm trying to start reading another book, but I'm still stuck in Nora's world. 

The last two books in the series are: Silence and Finale.

I will definitely be writing more reviews on this blog as I finish some books. I love reviewing books, but I just don't have time to keep up with a full time review blog like I was doing, nor have the time to fly through books like I normally do since I'm trying to finish writing my own book.

Hello, halfway point.

I've been writing this book for exactly 42 days and I've hit 35K, the halfway point to my word count goal for this book. I am so...amazed at how much I've written in a little over a month. In my deadlines, I would have hit 35K in between the weeks of Feb. 11th through Feb. 17th and  Feb. 18th - Feb. 24th. But it's happened on January 6th at 3am.

I am not going to go into panic mode. Oh my God.

One Month!

It's been a month since I start my new WIP (work-in-progress) and I am farther than I expected to be. My best friend and writing buddy, Michele Byrd, and I have goals/deadlines for each week (You can see January's deadlines on the sidebar.) and then an ultimate goal to have at the end of the month. We try to at least write 3,000 words a week, but we've been doing a lot more than that each week.

Our goal is to try and have our first rough draft done by July 1st, but it definitely looks like we'll be finishing before that. We've given ourselves six months to complete the rough draft. Our deadline for January 1st was to have at least 12, 000 words and we're past that.

I'm thinking I may post updates at the end of each month on the progress of this WIP. It's current title (Won't be the actual title, it's just a name I gave it from a song that is on the playlist and matches it well. :) I was tired of calling it just WIP.) is Bring Me To Life. So If I say Bring Me To Life or BMTL I'm talking about my current WIP. :)

But anyway, my goal was to be between 12K and 15K by January 1st and my current word count as of 1:15pm December 30th is 24, 646. I will update this on January 1st with my final word count for the month.

Also, I'm horrible at knowing what to tell about myself, I tend to ramble, so I may look up some interview/survey type things and add them to the blog throughout the week or so.

Update (01/01/13): I finished December 31st, 2012 with a total of 27, 288 words. Officially in February deadlines, a month early!

New Beginning

So....I really suck at beginning posts. I really do. And believe me, I've went through quite a lot of them. I always try and start a blog to keep up with my path with writing and hopefully publication in the future. But I never seem to keep the blogs! I always get too busy, or whatever other excuse forms in my brain.

I'm really going to try this time. But just to warn you ahead of time, don't get your hopes up. The longest blog I've ever had is a book review blog. But since I don't have time for it anymore, maybe I can keep up with this one. I'll post reviews of books here and there if I think it deserves on. :) Instead of the hassle of keeping up with a good review blog or keeping up with many blogs at one time.

To tell you a little about myself, my name is Amanda Kelley, obviously. And the G in the URL is for my middle name, which I'm not going to name right now. I have a love/hate relationship with my middle name, which I will go into detail about at a later time.

I'm currently twenty-years-old, I am married, and I have a son who will be two in March. Which is absolute MADNESS. I live in a small town on the outer edges of Jacksonville, Florida. I was born in Georgia, but my mom moved with my family to Jacksonville during my early years, not completely sure how old I was.

When I'm not writing, or reading, I can be found doing various chores while keeping up with my toddler who is destructive and high on energy, watching one of my many favorite TV shows, spending time with my family, or you know, the normal stuff like kicking butt on Call of Duty: Black Ops.

I love to cook and bake, I'm always up for trying new recipes. I'm always trying to find different ways of keeping organized. Everyone thinks I'm super organized, but honestly, I'm not. I only aspire to be mega organized.

Another thing is music. Music used to be my life, and then I stopped listening to it as much for a while, but lately I've been getting back into my love for it full swing. Especially since I NEED it to write. I can't write very well without my favorite music playing.

That isn't everything about me, obviously, but I can't really think of much else to say right now. As I said, I'm terrible at this. I'll be posting more another time as I get this blog up and running better.


--Amanda