Victorious Dead: COVER REVEAL!

     Last week I mentioned celebrating everything. Well, one thing that is extremely fun to celebrate is a new cover! I have a wonderful cover artist for both The Lost Ancient Series as well as The Asarlaí Wars trilogy. Aleta Rafton. And she's done it again!!!

     Even though I don’t make the covers (clearly ;)) they are part of my heart and vision. When you work with a professional cover designer—a good one—you give an idea of what you’re thinking.  Aleta will ask the genre, what the character looks like, costuming, ideas on setting, weapons, etc. They give some roughs, you pick, choose, and add changes until it becomes part of the book itself. It is the face of your book and you have to do all you can to make it look great and represent the book. Not everyone will love it. But, not everyone will love the books either ;).

I am proud to present the cover for the second Asarlaí Wars book—Victorious Dead.

Estimated publication- Summer 2017.

Celebrate EVERYTHING

Writing is hard--life is hard. So many times both in writing and in life, we don't celebrate our accomplishments. Either we feel they are too small ("No one would celebrate THAT, I'm not famous yet after all.") or feel it's bragging- and we all know we're not supposed to do that ;).

I'm here to say that no accomplishment is too small to be celebrated--even if it's only in our own head. And it's not bragging to tell people you've hit a personal goal for yourself. We should always celebrate each others' accomplishments.

We worry too much about our end goal, how we can get where we want to finish up. Why? An end goal is just that, an end. It's the journey that we take to get there, with all the bumps, dumps, and jumps we go through along the way that we should focus on.

I've mentioned before I see a ladder as my writing career journey. The top is lost far above me, and the bottom as well. But each accomplishment I've made: starting a book, finishing a book, letting people read a book, publishing, sales, signing events, rankings--all of those are rungs I've climbed. 

Whatever happens with my end goal, those rungs will always be there. My lost in the clouds goal might be different than what I think it is now. I might never get where I dream to be. BUT, those rungs are mine. I climbed them. I celebrated them.

Enjoy the journey, celebrate your accomplishments and those of folks around you.

#IWSG- NEVER GIVE UP!

Welcome all, to another monthly round up of writers hopping about from blog to blog!  Also known as the Insecure Writers Support Group blog day! Join us!    http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Today there was a question proposed of digging out really old work and what did you do with it. Well, I have been writing a VERY long time, so I have a lot of old work lingering about.

My very first book will never see the light of day (seriously- don't even know where it is) but over the years I have stolen names and characters from it for other books.

However, a not quite as old book has definitely made a splash. Warrior Wench was written over six years ago folks. I had planned to publish it after The Lost Ancients series finished, but got it out there earlier. It's done very well in sales and professional and fan reviews. I'm not saying that to brag--I still am nowhere near quitting my day job, but just to point out that you should never give up on a work you've done. 

Find your older pieces--can they be buffed up and put out as they are with some editing and spit shine? Or should you rip the pieces apart and pick out elements for other work?

Nothing should ever be wasted :).

Happy IWSG DAY!