Thursday, March 12, 2015

Reading and Writing and Pitching, oh my!

Good afternoon, my lovelies!

It's been a semi-eventful couple of weeks since my last post.

Firstly, and possibly MOST exciting, I pre-ordered The Winner's Crime, and my amazing indie bookshop called me up FIVE DAYS before it's technical release to tell me it had come in! So I managed to score the bestest book of 2015 early!

Reading at a tea shop in Flagstaff 
Five days early!!
I had a busy weekend (went up to Flagstaff with the hubby and found SNOW and wore SWEATERS and it was so so lovely) and only managed to read in snatches and pieces, but finished on March 3rd with my heart shattered and my mind blown and a major book hangover.

I cannot WAIT for book 3 but I have to, alas.

In the meantime, I kind of had to make up an ending in my head so I would be okay with the horrendous cliffhanger.

IT WAS REALLY SERIOUS, YOU GUYS. My word. But the book as a whole was exquisite and beautiful and heart-pounding and frustrating and shocking and AMAZING. I can't wait to reread it when I've recovered a little. And then maybe I'll be able to write a proper review. For now all I have to say is: READ THIS SERIES. You won't regret it (okay, you WILL, but only because it's just that heart-wrenching).

I'm still revising revising revising, and making fairly good progress with my fairytale retelling. My word count has swelled now to 74,688, and will probably grow even more by the time I'm done. I've had to add another whole chapter; now I have 24 instead of 23. Currently I'm in chapter 11, so nearly halfway. Struggling to build the relationship between my main character and an enchanted creature right now… I think I'm slowly getting there!

My self-inflicted finish date is April 23rd—I want to get this thing off to beta readers before my husband and I leave on our trip back east. I think I can do it!

Participated in the Twitter pitch contest PitMad yesterday and got……… nothin'! But that's okay. My book seems to be more of a traditional querying type creature than a contest one (I've certainly garnered more attention querying than I have in the spatter of contests I've entered over the last few months!). And in any case, it led me to develop what might be my favorite pitch for THE WHALE AND THE TREE of all time:
Talia was supposed to become empress—NOT get banished from her homeland, betrothed to a random boy, and drawn into the mythical saga of nine gods and an immortal tree.

So there you have it! What do you think?

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'm off to see my new little niece on Sunday. Can't wait.

Happy writing! :-)

5 comments:

Jessica Bucher said...

*New follower from the Twitter pitch contest. :)

First, I've been seeing this Winner's Curse series everywhere, so I think I need to read it now! But might wait until I don't have to wait so long for the third book. That's no fun.

Congrats on your revision progress. I assume this was a NaNo project? You're way ahead of me on progress. I'm revising chapter 4 :/ i really need to buckle down. But I love the pitch! Sounds interesting! I love fairytale retellings.

And sorry to hear you didn't get anything from #pitmad. When I did it december, I didn't get anything either. I was disappointed, but like you said, not all books are meant for contest success.

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

Hi, Sweet Green! Thanks for following! Glad you found me! :-)

Okay, so the cliffhanger for Winner's Crime IS super horrible, but you should read the first two anyways so you can join the tormented/exciting wait for Book 3!!

And yup, I'm revising the novel I started for NaNo (though I actually didn't finish until December). Fairytale retellings are so much fun! The pitch is for the novel I'm currently querying. I'm glad you like it!

Much luck with your projects! Thanks again for stopping by! :-)

Virginia said...

I like that pitch! It makes me, at the very least, want to read a longer blurb. Seems like #pitmad can be quite fickle though, so oh well.

Congrats on revision progress! That's always exciting!

Are you planning on entering pitch wars this year? If so with which manuscript?

You are now the fifth trusted source to recommend the Winner's Circle series so I guess I will have to pick up a copy. Any idea when the third book is coming out? What kind of drawn out suspense am I setting myself up for?

Virginia said...

Oops. I meant Winner's Trilogy (not sure where I got circle from).

Joanna Ruth Meyer said...

Hi Virginia! Thanks for stopping by! :-)

If I do enter Pitch Wars this year, it will be with the novel I'm currently revising—it should be done by then! But I haven't quite decided yet. :-)

And yes, The Winner's Curse series is SO AMAZINGLY AMAZING. You've got to give it a try!!