NaNoWriMo 2020 – Final Week Check in and Review

I wrote 14,005 words in Week 4, or rather between 22 – 30 November, bringing my total for the month up to 50,053. This week’s numbers were divided amongst the following projects because, as I stated here, I am a NaNo Rebel (again) this year:

• My Historical Romance Novel – 6489 words.  If you follow my page on Facebook, you will already know I completed the first draft of this novel on Friday 27th November.  Woohoo!  As that was my main goal for the month, I feel pretty chuffed that I managed to hit one of the goals I set. As I started writing the novel back in June, I think enough time has passed since I wrote those early chapters for me to go back and start rewriting / revising / editing.
• The Dreamer: An Andromache Jones Mystery Novella – 0 words.   I got no new words added to this story last week.  However, over the course of the month, I added a total of 7241 words, and uploaded 6 new chapters to Wattpad.  Part of me wishes I had got another chapter or two complete, but another part of me is just pleased to see progress has been made…
• Oath Broken – 0 new words written  No words and no planning this week…If I’m being honest, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t add anything new to this project over the month, accept for a little planning. 😦
• The Goddess Retreat – 0 new words – Still nothing on this project…Yeah, it’s definitely on hold…
• Free Write Sessions – 7516 words. I’m very pleased with the random poetry and pieces of flash fiction I’ve scribbled away at over the past few weeks. I now have 14500 words in various styles and stages of completion to work through and see what’s what.

So that’s a quick review of my final week.  Over all, I’m pleased with the numbers and progress made across the two projects I worked on, and it has helped set my focus for the coming month’s writing.

My December goals:

• Start rewriting / revising / editing of my Historical Romance Novel
• Complete The Dreamer: An Andromache Jones Mystery Novella

If you joined in, how did you get on?  What are your writing goals for December? Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to message me over on the NaNoWriMo site if you’d prefer!  You can find me by searching for my username: Sammi Cox.

Happy writing!

Sammi x

NaNoWriMo 2020 – End of Week 3 Check In

Week 3 of my NaNoWriMo efforts saw me write fewer words than last week, but a quick glance over them showed the quality was fairly impressive (for a first draft), so in terms of long term writing goals, I’ll lose fewer of them to editing.  Sounds like a win to me! 🙂

I wrote 11,472 words in Week 3, bringing my total for the month up to 36,048. This week’s numbers were divided amongst the following projects because, as I stated here, I am a NaNo Rebel (again) this year:

• My Historical Romance Novel – 9145 words.  As my primary goal is to complete my first draft of this story, I spent most of week 3 working on it and now the end is in sight.  Woohoo!  As I said last week, this first draft should, barring any major difficulties, be complete by the end of November…Yay!
• The Dreamer: An Andromache Jones Mystery Novella – 1602 words.   Only one chapter was written and uploaded for this story last week. I hope to get another one complete and posted to Wattpad by the end of the month, but it won’t happen unless I complete my primary project.
• Oath Broken – 0 new words written 😦  No words and no planning this week…
• The Goddess Retreat – 0 new words – Still nothing on this project…It’s safe to say, I think this story has been put on hold…
• Free Write Sessions – 725  words. Mainly snippets of microfiction this week, and a few stray lines of the poetic variety.  Some I might leave as they are, whilst others might feel more complete if they had more company 🙂

So that’s a quick review of my third week.  If you joined in, how are you getting on?  Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to message me over on the NaNoWriMo site if you’d prefer!  You can find me by searching for my username: Sammi Cox.

Wishing everyone who’s participating lots of good luck and best wishes for Week 4!

Sammi x

Playing with Murder – Publication News

Back in September, my short story, Playing with Murder was published in Unveiled Secrets, a Fantasia Divinity anthology, and I forgot to share the news…

Here’s the summary for Playing with Murder:

When Theo Reed returns to his room in Drake’s Lodging House after a short work trip out of town, it’s to a nasty surprise: a dead body lying on the floor.  He doesn’t know the victim, but the police believe they know the murderer.  Him.  That’s problem number one.

Problem number two: Theo Reed is no angel.  He’s no murderer either, but he’s going to have convince a lot of people of that.  What ensues is a chase across the city, the outcome of which has deadly consequences for him, should he fail.

Playing with Murder is an urban low fantasy mystery, set in another world not that dissimilar to Victorian England.

Here’s the summary from the anthology as a whole from Amazon:

Detective stories are popular the world over, fueling people’s desires to know “whodunit.” Combine that with the magic and myths of fantasy and you’ve entered a whole new world of mystery and intrigue! Join us on this adventure filled with 11 detective fantasy stories that will strike your imagination!

With stories by J.W. Grace, Gerry Griffiths, Sandy Underman, Sammi Cox, DM Burdett, Deeanna West, Zoey Xolton, Danielle Davis, Lionel Ray Green, Charlotte Platt, and Rebecca Buchanan

My thanks to Fantasia Divinity for selecting it for the anthology, and to M.E. Rodman for editing.

Find it on Amazon and Goodreads

NaNoWriMo 2020 – End of Week 2 Check In

Week 2 of my NaNoWriMo efforts surpassed my expectations, which is always nice 😉

I wrote 12,794 words in Week 2, bringing my total for the month up to 24,576. This week’s numbers were divided amongst the following projects because, as I stated here, I am a NaNo Rebel (again) this year:

• My Historical Romance Novel – 6479 words.  Completing my first draft is my main writing goal at the moment, so the majority of my words and concentration have gone into this project. And I’m almost there…this first draft should, barring any major difficulties, be complete by the end of November…Yay!
• The Dreamer: An Andromache Jones Mystery Novella – 2058 words.   I uploaded another two chapters of this project to Wattpad during Week 2. I’m making good progress, and even if I don’t get it completed by the end of the month, I should get it finished by the end of the year.
• Oath Broken – 0 new words written 😦  But, again, there’s been some behind the scenes prep going on, which is progress in itself, and I’m surprisingly happy with that.
• The Goddess Retreat – 0 new words – Still nothing on this project…not even a stray thought as I’m too busy with the other projects.  That’s just the way things go…
• Free Write Sessions – 4257 words. A few more short stories and pieces of flash fiction have been written, some complete, some not, but that’s the wonderful thing about a free write session, there are no rules and no expectations. And I can go back and complete / edit them another time! 🙂

So that’s a quick review of my second week.  If you joined in, how are you getting on?  Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to message me over on the NaNoWriMo site if you’d prefer!

Wishing everyone who’s participating lots of good luck and best wishes for Week 3!

Sammi x

NaNoWriMo 2020 – End of Week 1 Check In

Week 1 of my NaNoWriMo efforts were not too shabby, and I thought I would check-in with others who might have joined in the writing challenge.

I wrote 11,782 words in Week 1, which were divided amongst the following projects because, as I stated here, I am a NaNo Rebel (again) this year:

• My Historical Romance Novel – 6199 words.  Completing my first draft is my main writing goal at the moment, so the majority of my words and concentration have gone into this project.
• The Dreamer: An Andromache Jones Mystery Novella – 3581 words.   I uploaded another three chapters of this project to Wattpad during Week 1, and again hope that I might get this story completed by the end of the month.
• Oath Broken – 0 new words written 😦  But I have been doing a little prep for writing on this one.
• The Goddess Retreat – 0 new words – With hindsight, I don’t expect to have the time to get any writing done on this project at all…Sigh 😦
• Free Write Sessions – 2002 words.  I enjoy the freedom of a Free Write Session, where I can write whatever story I like. I do try and fit one in every day, but time doesn’t always allow for it.  However, I have managed to get a handful in, and subsequently I now have a few new pieces of flash fiction and scenes from a couple of short stories complete.  Happy Days!

So that’s a quick review of my first week.  If you joined in, how are you getting on?  Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to message me over on the NaNoWriMo site if you’d prefer!

Wishing everyone who’s participating lots of good luck and best wishes for Week 2!

Sammi x

A Samhain Summoning – Publication News

One of my stories, A Samhain Summoning, was published in an anthology on Halloween…very fitting for a collection of stories inspired by witches and magic.

The anthology is “Hexed”, from Iron Faerie Publishing.  My thanks to the Stacey Jaine McIntosh for including my story. Here’s the book description:

Magic, mayhem and mystery.

Cloaked in magic and surrounded by darkness witches have captured our imagination for millennia and fascinate us more than ever today.

From the wise old crone, witches can be healers and protectors, keepers of the old ways or possessed with supernatural abilities, used for good or evil.

Enter the world of witches – whatever the guise – and enjoy these wicked and wonderful short tales sure to delight!

You can find out more about the anthology, or get yourself a copy, by heading over to Amazon.

NaNoWriMo 2020 – my plans for this year

With less than two weeks to go before the start of November, I decided this afternoon that it was time to announce my project for this year’s NaNoWriMo.  (For those of you who do not know what NaNoWriMo is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel throughout November.  You can find more about this writing challenge over on the website.)

As I’m currently two-thirds of the way through the first draft of an historical romance, and because I have far too many WIPs which need attention, I’m going to be a rebel again this year and not focus on a single novel.  My project is called:

In Search of Completion

The plan: to complete the first draft of my historical romance, and then start tackling some of these WIPs that are calling my name, and I have a fair few to choose from.  I’m pretty sure which “other projects” I’ll be working on, with a fantasy novel, a cosy-mystery novella and a sort-of chick-lit novella on my to do list for 2020, all of which are in differing stages of completion.  If you’re interested in the latter projects, you can find them via my Wattpad profile because the two novella’s were my entries to this year’s ONC which I did not complete because this year has just been meh, and the novel is Oath Broken…

Are you joining in with NaNoWriMo this year?  What are you working on, and are you ready for November? I would love to hear about your plans and prep.

Don’t forget, if you want to be writing buddies, you can find me on the NaNoWriMo website by searching for my username: Sammi Cox

Hope to see you over there!

Checking in…a quick update

It’s been a while since I last shared an update. Here goes…

Blogging Break

a random photo…

For a little while I’ve been planning a bit of a blogging break.  Trying to keep up with blogging (on three websites), with writing and editing my WIPs (of which, I accept, I have far too many), submitting work to various places and searching out venues to send it, social media and wattpad, as well as everything life has to throw at us…well, it’s just too much, and in some instances I am failing completely (I’m looking at you Wattpad…).  Hence the need for a blogging break, to give this brain of mine a bit of a rest because it needs it.  It will also give me the time to think about which projects would benefit most from my energy.  A little bit of focus and clarity can go a long way…

This means things will be a little quiet around here for the next few weeks.  I will however, schedule the next few Weekend Writing Prompts…

The Winter Ghost

Last week I made this announcement on Wattpad / Facebook:

This is just a quick update to say that yesterday I put the finishing touches to the final edit of The Winter Ghost. Woohoo!

This little story has come a long way since I wrote the first draft as part of 2019’s ONC. The finished manuscript doesn’t look much like the version that’s posted here – it’s been restructured, extended, there are maps…With the help of some fabulous beta readers I’ve really tried to make this story the best it can be.

Since it can be hard to find a traditional publisher that accepts fantasy novellas, I’m probably going to publish it myself, and with that in mind, I’m going to unpublish the first draft posted here, but not before 13th September 2020. That should give anyone reading it the chance to finish it – or those who have yet to read it, the chance to read it from beginning to end, should they wish.

So if you want to read the original draft, you’ve only a couple of weeks to do so.  You can find the story here:

With this story now completely completed, as I mentioned in the announcement, the next logical step would be to release it out into the world.  This will be one of my main priorities for the next little while.  If I can find a traditional publisher who accepts fantasy novellas I will consider submitting it to them, but it’s highly unlikely, and so I will probably publish it myself.  There is going to be a lot of hard work in my future, but it will be exciting also, I’m sure.

Submissions

I’ve had a few pieces of work accepted recently. A couple of poems and some short fiction.  It always feels good to keep my list of publications ticking over, albeit slowly, even if it’s just for confirmation that someone somewhere thinks my work is ok and maybe…hopefully…enjoys it.  I’ll share more on these closer to the time they become available to read.

WIPs

As I’ve already said, I have more WIPs than I think any sane person should admit to…My goal at the moment is to make enough progress on some of these projects to at least give them a complete rough draft, just to see what’s looking promising and what needs a lot more work.  With others, I’m trying to be sensible and mark at least some of them as “On Hold”.  The problem I have is, as soon as I put a WIP on that list, I’m struck by a level of inspiration that I can’t ignore…Sigh…

Current projects I’m actively working on are:

• an as yet, not ready to be revealed, historical romance
• The Dreamer – An Andromache Jones Mystery novella
• Oathbreaker and other books in the series / world
• The follow-on to The Winter Ghost

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.  What projects are you working on at the moment?  What plans do you have for the near / distant future?

Stuck In His Shape – Poem Publication

A random photo…

My poem, Stuck In His Shape, has been published over at the wonderful Nine Muses Poetry. My thanks to editor, Annest Gwilym, for accepting it.

The poem was written in response to this month’s special challenge image, and it’s the first time I’ve managed to get something sent in for it as I always leave it too late to participate…If you follow the link below, you can find this month’s picture and see what inspired the poem by clicking the “Special Challenge” link on the menu at the top of the page.

You can find my poem here.

If you do have a read of it, I hope you enjoy it!

A Higher Wisdom

You’ll find her words

Hidden in the shades

Of nature’s colour wheel

In the nuances of the season

In the cracks between

Air, fire, water and earth

And here they wait patiently

At rainbow’s end

To be discovered

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Written for: Weekend Writing Prompt #167 – Nuance | Word count: 38