Tag: Fiction

Book Discount

Published on by Elaina2 Comments
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I wrote a novel. It’s called Chasing Hope. You can read a few reader comments about the book, here. You can find it on Amazon, here. Do you love a good book discount? I mean, if you’ve see my overwhelming number of books, you’d know that I do. When movers move me, they make comments on the number of book boxes I have. I can’t help myself. I absolutely refuse to give most of them away.

The price of Chasing Hope is now discounted (Kindle & paperback)! You can download the Kindle book for $2.99! And the paperback is at the lowest offer I’m allowed to give – at $6.54!

You can see ratings/reviews on Goodreads, here.

Here’s the first paragraph & a description of Chasing Hope:
In a stroke of sheer genius, or maybe it’s a sign of a quickly approaching mental breakdown, I left D.C. seven and a half hours ago and headed toward the coast of North Carolina, with the pain of a secret dream’s loss, taking up the most space in my truck. Besides my personal effects and the furniture I brought into my marriage, I left everything else to my ex-husband and his Legislative Assistant.

Dr. Ava Cooper has it all. Scratch that – she had it all. Leaving behind the wreckage of her old life, she moves to the coast of North Carolina, without any fight left in her. As she settles into small-town life, she meets a baby in the foster care system that could change everything. Will Ava be able to let hope in long enough to get back the life she so desperately longs for?

Giving Up

Published on by Elaina6 Comments
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I have a hard time letting go and giving up. I’ve said before that I think it’s a good quality in many ways. But sometimes a girl (me) hangs on too long. It’s time to let go of A Thousand Years. I’ve tried so hard to make it work. And I just can’t. At this point, it’s holding me back. I’m not 100% sure which novel will take its place. To be honest, it’s a bummer. But it’s time for it to go.

Giving up doesn’t come naturally to me. It has taken far too long to come to this conclusion, about this book, for that reason. It’s a novel that I’ve probably written 80,000+ words too since 2020. But I’ve given up. And now that I have, I’m not sure what needs to take its place. As a writer, one of the hardest things to witness, when it comes to your writing, is to watch words you’ve worked so hard to write, sink.

Someday, the heart behind the story will live on somewhere.

Writing is Occasionally Like Torture

Published on by Elaina3 Comments

I officially edited or wrote 51,691 words on A Thousand Years, “winning” NaNoWriMo (as of today). The only problem is, I spent my second NaNoWriMo (that’s National Novel Writing Month) working on a novel that I may abandon, soon. I don’t know what to do anymore. The novel has lost its way. And I guess that means I have.

When you write fiction that is primarily character driven (vs. plot driven) and you run into a character problem, you’ve got an entire novel problem. And . . . A Thousand Years has a character problem. The problem is, I love the heart of this novel. Which means that this little fear churning inside – that I should dump it, when I don’t really want to (but also don’t know how to fix it), is a little like torture. Like, you know, as if I’m water boarding myself. Who willingly tortures themselves?

Writers. Writers willingly torture themselves. So here I am, it’s the day before Thanksgiving, I’ve technically hit a 50,000 word count goal and I’m absolutely nowhere. I don’t know if it’s salvageable – though I long for it to be. Torture, I tell you.

A NaNoWriMo Update

Published on by ElainaLeave a comment
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November 1st was the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month! Here’s a NaNoWriMo update. I dropped off the writing/editing last week for a few days. But I picked back up tonight and edited and/or wrote, 5,515 words. I decided at the last minute to re-write and edit, A Thousand Years.

I’ve written some new content, switched up where the novel starts – and therefore where my protagonist met her love, Graham Ford. I feel much better about where the whole thing is going. With the slow down earlier this week, I’ve only got about 6,000 words written/edited in the last seven days. But if I sustain my daily word count goal for the remainder of the month, I should finish a couple days early (pats self on back).

There’s still some stuff I’m unsure about, but I’m hoping that with the switch-up I’ve started working on, that will work itself out too. Are your participating? Hoes’ the writing (or editing), going?

National Novel Writing Month

Published on by Elaina2 Comments
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Photo by Ashley Knedler

November is National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). I’ve been a NaNoWriMo participant since 2009. But until last year, I never actually finished a project. In 2020, at one of the wildest times for me professionally, I wrote a 51,640 word novel. The words poured out of me. The novel, A Thousand Years, has been varying states of editing for 11 months. I start in on re-write and it doesn’t feel quite right and I start over. It has been weird. I love the story. But it has changed dramatically from what I started writing in 2020.

As I gear up for NaNoWriMo 2021, I have a decision to make (real quick like). Do I focus in on a final draft of A Thousand Years, or do I write Sea Glass Hearts (which I’ve started)? I also have another book – still untitled, about a character named Lacey James that desperately needs to be written. I have until Monday to decide. I thought tonight I’d play around a little with all three and see if my muse catches fire. He’s finicky. So . . . eh, we’ll see what happens.

You can read some of Lacey’s story, here & here.

Sea Glass Hearts excerpts are here.

A Thousand Years, is here.