Running The Averie Marathon...

Happy Tuesday Everybody,

Whew! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this blog. Things are chaotic in the Averie Household and some days I feel like I'm running a marathon.

Recently I was talking with a friend of mine who mentioned she was starting a writers' group somewhere. I'm not able to be a part of the group, but she wants me to come out and do a talk. I'm very flattered and thrilled to be asked, so I inquired what she'd want me to talk about. She mentioned networking. We chatted a bit about that and my wheels have been turning ever since. (We're looking at me doing the talk sometime in the summer, we haven't set a date, yet). I'm looking forward to it.

My illustrious critique partner, Tess St. John, has just released the 5th and final book in her Undercover Intrigue, romantic suspense series. The novel is entitled Eyes Of A Stranger and for a limited time it's on sale for 99 cents on Amazon Kindle. I haven't read this one and am really looking forward to seeing how she wraps up the series. The romantic suspense have been my favorite out of all the many genres she writes. I like her other work, but this series has been my favorite. I'm so happy for her. She works so hard and has done some incredible things with her work.

Another new release that I am excited about (and have read--and enjoyed) is Stacy Hoff's Desire In The Arctic (sequel to Desire In The Everglades, but you can read them out of order, but I recommend reading the first one before picking up this one). What can I say about this novel aside from fun, adventure, suspense, and romance all rolled into a heart-warming novel is worth sitting down with a good cup of coffee (or tea, or wine, or whatever drink you prefer) and enjoying. Stacy has an incredible imagination and never ceases to intrigue me with her ideas. This one is also available on Amazon Kindle.

I continue working on my WIP (Work In Progress) as much as possible and I'm making some progress on it. I'm not sure when I'll be done, but I'm hoping before too many more months go by I'll have it written and working on editing and getting it critiqued. 

I'm also working on critiquing a fellow author's work. We've worked with each other before and I really want to help her out. She's a very imaginative author who nails emotion in her novels quite well.

What are you reading these days?

Have A Tremendously Terrific Tuesday!

The Writing Career...

Happy Wednesday All,

I hope everyone is doing well this March and enjoyed/enjoying their

Spring Break. We've had some sun and some rain, some cold and some warm weather. Basically, I think our weather has some kind of indecision problem. Either that, or it got into someone's liquor cabinet and is completely drunk. I'll let you decide which scenario best fits.

There's a couple of blog-related things coming up that should be fun, I've got 2 official blog book reviews in the works. One I'm planning to post next week, and one I'm going to post as soon as I can (I'm currently reading the novel).

On the writing front, I got the critiques back on one of my WIPs and I'll be working on that. I'm awaiting first round edits for book 1 in my Immortal Dreams Trilogy. I'm also waiting on cover art (I've already turned in the forms for all 3 books--each book will be released separately, though).

By the way, Immortal Dreams Book 1: Divine Love has a release date!  My publisher and me are looking at June 18th of this year for Book 1 to be released. As with All's Fair In Love & Lion, the novel will first be released to Amazon Kindle, then somewhere around 6-9 months later will go into print form.

As soon as I have a date for the print version of All's Fair In Love & Lion I'll announce that. At the moment, the only thing I know is that my publisher thought it would be sometime in April.  (Several people have asked me about the print version, and I'm looking forward to it being available to those who want--plus it'll be fun to have a "hard copy" of the novel!)

Funny thing I've encountered as a writer is how many people say to me "I could NEVER do what you do."  The thing is, anyone who can string together a coherent sentence can write. The question is, do you have the passion, drive, and determination to do this? Can you face endless hours of editing? What about rejection? Rejection hurts--even when it's a "good" rejection, even when you learn from it, it's hard to hear "This isn't right for us." 

It is a tough job. But it's one of the most fascinating things I've done in my life. There's something so freeing about letting my imagination run where it will. Whether I'm contemplating the next book, or the next scene, or how to fix something, it gives my imagination a chance to do exactly what it likes to do--create and image.


I guess I don't consider it especially difficult (there are difficult days, but the writing career itself is what I mean) because it's something I do every day (even if I'm not physically writing, I'm thinking about it). It's something I've pretty much done most of my life. 

In the end, it's a matter of perspective. What others view as "impossible" I think "Why not?" and the things I think "I don't have the patience for that." other people are like "Oh, it's no big deal." Everything depends on what your talents are and what you're passionate about.

If writing is something you're into, keep the passion brightly lit. Stay determined. And as so many other authors say:  "Don't give up." The minute you give up, is the minute you quit being a writer/author.

Happy reading and writing everybody. :-)

Have A Wonderfully Whimsical Day!

My Brain Ate It

Happy Tuesday One And All,

The other day an idea for a story was "tickling" and "itching" at my brain. I kept thinking about different things to do with the idea, but nothing was "fleshing out".

Finally, at night, I sat down in front of the keyboard and thought, "That's it, I have to flesh this idea out or else it's gonna make me crazy."

I built up character names and some background information and began work on plot line ideas. I left enough holes for "wiggle room" and began writing. I'll probably chuck what I wrote (2 pages). I might even change one of the names, but at least I got started.

What is it about inspiration and when it hits that you feel like you're twisted up in knots until the whole thing comes together?

And if you don't get it down on paper, sometimes you lose that spark of inspiration, or an idea.

So...flesh out the ideas, make yourself work it out. The rest of the details will come later, but without that initial idea more than just a spark, you don't have a whole lot to work with.

How do you flesh out ideas?

Have A Tremendous Tuesday!

Back To Our Program Already In Progress

Afternoon All,

Okay, let's just say I'm blinking in amazement right now. I never expected comment I made on someone else's blog would generate so much traffic on my comment section (especially on one about laughing LOL). But in any case, thank you for the nice comments and the compliments. I appreciate it. Please, if you have something to say about another blog where I posted a comment, direct it to my email: bethanyintexas@yahoo.com I'll be happy to correspond with you about it there. I'm not trying to be rude, I just like to keep my blog pretty much about writing since that's it's purpose (NO offense meant to anyone).

Anyway, moving along. I sent my revised chapter 1 of Conjure A Man to the illustrious Tessy (my CP) and she sent me back comments (again, some good ones). A few things I'm gonna have to take more time to think about. On another note, until further notice, CAM is on hiatus. I just need to get away from it for now. I love the idea, and I love the title, it's just I'm not loving how it's going currently.

I've got another project--it's a secret--but I think it's mostly a YA Paranormal Romance based on the ages of the main characters. That could change, but for now that's that.

Surreal is undergoing a form of surgery--word count surgery. I'm trying to bring the word count down. (Over 124,000 words--EEEEKK!) So yeah, some major word cutting going on there, but I think it'll help with my editing as well. It's going very well thus far, so I'm pretty happy about that--but still a lot more to do.

What are you currently working on? How's it going?

Have A Thrilling Thursday!

Works In Progress

Morning All,

I've got 3 manuscripts in the works:

Surreal is in editing. It's my first finished full-length novel. You've got a parallel world (The Third Realm), shape shifters (I call them Man-beasts just to differiante from other shape shifting beings) jealousy, desire, fight scene, and love. This story is still in editing, and I'm waiting on the last pages from my free-lance editor. I've discovered other ways of fixing up this manuscript, too, by doing Todd Stone's 7 Revision Passes (starting on slide 6 of the link I provide).

Conjure A Man has witches, warlocks, vampires, patronizing relatives, and Delaney Ryan (witch) risking imprisonment by The High Counsel when she brings a human into The Lands of Fantasy. She's risking being found out...not only that, risking her heart, as well.

Heartbeats is the tentative title to the companion novel for Conjure A Man. It's not a sequel, but it has Delaney's best friend, Caruso Valetti (vampire) in it. Revenge, lost love, former best friends, and a possibility for great love for the asking.

So, what are you all working on? Anything ready to be queried? You got a particular editing method? Got anything just lurking on the edges of inspiration?

Have A Terrific Thursday!