September Blog Stats

It's stat geek time again! Last month was a weird one. I thought I'd have like 20 posts but life got crazy. I was still able to quite a few in though. So the big winners were My Writing Process (Thanks again to Zova Books' Matt Pizzo for that suggestion) and Elizabeth Darvill's new book Steamed Up! The last place was kind of shocking Teresa Burrell's new book post. Where are the mystery readers???

Little Updates
Waiting on the next round of TR3 edits. I think this will be the last round but I may have a big huge round as well.

Also waiting to hear about the re-issue of Thomas Riley on Zova Books. This should be really cool!

I'll be working on Tribes a bit today as well as Thomas Riley 3.

I'll be doing an interview with "The Library at The End of The Universe" next month for my story in the steampunk anthology Clockwork Spells and Magical Bells.

August Blog Stats and Updates

Stats
Last month the sexy Elizabeth Valentino took first place on my blog followed by the very talented Ben Steed and his amazing music! Last place was my post on Pinterest. (Finally, the blog stat post wasn't last place.... by only one point.) So it looks like this is  going to be a good and big blog month as I seem to be getting on the ball with all my writing. So stay tuned for lots of fun.

Here's the stats for you geeks like me.

Update
TR3 is coming along nicely! I'm waiting on round three of the TR2 edits but I should have them soon. I think Zova Books is hard at work re-editing Thomas Riley (1). So that is crazy exciting! I'm pretty darned stoked to see the next printing.

Tribes is going pretty well too! I've got my character sheets up and I'm really excited to write it when I have some off time or need a little break from steampunk. I almost have the first two chapters written. So one day, you'll get a totally different book from me.

That's it for now. More soon! Like tomorrow. :)

Pinterest

I was skeptical to join yet another social media/whatever you want to call it site as there's a million of them but Pinterest seemed nifty for some reason even though I had no idea what it was. I understood that you could "pin" photos and whatnot from the web and organize them into categories but couldn't you just do that on facebook?

Well, yeah you can but this is a little different. I asked around I've me insight on Pinterest and I got from some authors that the site was good for organizing inspirational pics for your books... That's good enough for me. I jumped into it, searching the web for anything that I could use as inspiration and low and behold, I started to like it! ow my Pinterest page has pics from my life, pics that inspire me for Thomas Riley 3, Jet Black and Tribes... So, if you look, you can get a secret glimpse into what might be coming next book wise. (The picture above serves as inspiration for the opening scene of Thomas Riley 3... This is the new Cynthia Basset) With any site like this, it's always a work in progress and I'll be adding things all the time.

So if you have a Pinterest account or just want to check out my pics and inspiration, check out my page here.

Thomas Riley 2 Edits Round 2 Done

Edits
I'm happy to announce a few cool things. One that the Thomas Riley 2 (Round 2) edits are done and sent off. My editor, Amanda Shults from ZOVA Books has been insanley wonderful through this whole process and has been such a huge help. She's helped me hone and shape this into a wonderfully detailed story. I'm absolutely excited for everyone to read this! The book has several big turn of events.

Thomas Riley 1 Reissue
So ZOVA Books will be rereleasing the first Thomas Riley novel. (All three will be under the same house now) I'm excited to report that the reissue will have the first chapter of book 2 at the end of the novel. This will not only answer a very important question, but it sets up book 2 quite nicely. I'm excited to see it!

In random news...
I'm working on the plotting of Thomas Riley 3 and it's looking to be even more detailed and in depth than #2. Somehow, this crazy steampunk story is going to get even crazier. In my in between time, I'm also fooling with a new book which all I will tell you right now is a horror novel called Tribes.

Thomas Riley Edits Round 1

The edits for Thomas Riley 2 are complete and sent to my wonderful editor at Zova Books. While this sounds awesome, don't get me wrong, it totally is, there is quite a lot more to do. The round one is the first set of edits for the first seven chapters. (There are 23 in all) So, we have two more sets of first round chapters, then a final edit as well.

The great part is that I now have Open Office and I'm on a bullet train (for me) pace. I feel good and I want to get this out asap and kick some booty with Thomas Riley 3. I'm extra inspired because I saw The Dark Knight Rises yesterday and what a bad ass trilogy that was! I loved it and it put me in the mindset to possibly close out the Thomas Riley series with a great ending.

I'm still chipping away at Thomas Riley 3 plot points, character bios and even getting some ideas for the rewrite of Chapter one. If you don't know, I started it and didn't like the scene at all so I'm redoing it. Okay, here's a hint. Right now I'm thinking about starting book three off with a funeral...

Look out for a blog tomorrow on my awesomely kooky weekend.

ZOVA Books

As I wait for the incoming edits for Thomas Riley 2, I thought it would be good to introduce my new publisher ZOVA BOOKS. I first met with the good people at ZOVA in person at San Diego Comic Con 2010. It was so exciting to hear their budding plans and their enthusiasm back then, nearly two years later, they've turned their bubbling book plans into a super volcano. They have their hands in a ton of amazing and ultra exciting things, not only in the publishing world but in the universe of film, and media as well.

I'm super excited to be a part of this company and they have a ton of amazing writers on their roster that run the gambit of literary genres, so as you can imagine, I'm honored to be in their company. ZOVA BOOKS holds the contracts for Thomas Riley 2 and 3, so you'll at least see two books coming from these fine folks. I'm also absolutely stoked on the help they've given me so far. I really believe that the character development in book two is already stronger because of Amanda at Zova. I'm so happy that my crazy characters have become crazier and now you'll get to see some glimpses of backstory in Thomas, Cynthia, Ann and Kathleen Benika.

Have I gushed enough? Okay, okay, I'll stop for now. Take a minute to check them out everywhere:

Website www.zovabooks.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/ZOVABOOKS

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/ZOVABooks

Tumblr Feed: http://zovabooks.tumblr.com/

Blog http://zovabooks.blogspot.com/

Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings and Endings

Ending
As you probably know, Thomas Riley 2 is finished. It took insanely long to finish because of reasons that I explained in an earlier post. Life, divorce, move across the country, getting settled in a new house, becoming a step parent. There's more I'm sure. But I'm happy to say that TR2 rings in at a pretty hefty  101,571 words and 241 single spaced Microsoft Word pages.

Beginning
So I'm working on Thomas Riley 3 and while I know where it is going and how it will end, I'm having problems starting the first chapter. The same thing happened on the second book too... I write half of the first chapter and I'm not happy with it... then I do it again, and I'm not happy with it again. I'm not worried, I'll get it right, it's just a pain in my ass. I will give these hints. TR3 should have some elements of time travel, and a possible trip to America... um, I mean "The Colonies".

Ending
If you know me, you know I'm a pretty obsessed hockey fan and my Nashville Predators were taken out by the Phoenix Coyotes in the second round of the playoffs. I'm disappointed... I always am when the season is over. I kind of felt like they would go really far this year. But I have to hand it to the Coyotes, they kicked out butts fair and square. So, I'll defer to the sports fan cliche: There's always next year.

Beginning
I'm finally getting pretty settled in Washington. Things are different, that's for sure but they are awesome in totally different ways. Despite what everyone says, the weather is amazing. Everyday feels like Halloween in Nashville. Also the weather reminds me a lot of London or Amsterdam. Anyway, Gig Harbor feels like home. I mean essentially, it's kind of a place one would retire... There's an amazing Harbor (hence the name), fun mom and pop places to eat and a few fun water front bars that we've been enjoying. It's a much slower place than Nashville but it's also awesome.