Day 365

Well, unfortunately my goal of 365 days wasn't realised. I can make excuses all I want - I had a rough year in university, I moved, I have a new job - but still it comes down to the fact that I just didn't work hard enough.

It's hard to believe I've been working on Rosehips for a year now, and to be honest, I'm a little angry with myself. A year and nothing to show for it. The book isn't finished like I said it would be. I got snagged in the halfway mark like so many authors do. At this point of the book, writing it is bland and sort of boring.

. . . But does that mean I'll give up?
Of course not.

This means that I just have to work harder. This goal was for absolutely no one but myself and it remains as such. So as not to disappoint myself further, I have a new goal.

I will absolutely finish this book by Oct. 31. Absolutely. National Novel Writing Month is coming up on Nov. 1, so I will finish Rosehips before that, work on something different, then edit and work on the formatting of Rosehips. I don't know when the book will be finished, but the manuscript will ne complete Oct. 31, or sooner.

Hopefully I'll have a new excerpt up soon. I'm going to stop recording things in days now and just post whenever I have news. Mind you, I'm pleased I DID keep up with the blog updating and such for as long as I did. If I ever take on a project like this, I will see it through, beyond excuses and rationalisations. That is a promise to me. The promise to you is that I will write you all an amazing book that hopefully everyone will enjoy.

Thanks for the support, everyone.
K.

Day 229

Yes, that's right - I've started recording the days again, which means I've started writing again! I finished chapter six - again - this morning; I had lost the end of it when my computer died. I'm backing it up on my USB key as I go, so there should be no trouble actually holding onto the whole file this time.

I've been working on cover design as well. It remains to be seen if I will do the artwork myself or commission some. It likely means I will have to manually give royalties, however, if I do commission cover art. We'll see.

I have two new creatures as well. I'll get some of the concept art coming and show you!

K.

Day something

Two new creatures for you today. The first is featured on the right here.

This little fellow is a Wishing Lemon, and its name is Growth. Wishing Lemons are magical creatures that live in the Lemon Forest and hide among the lemon trees. They aren't exactly animate lemons, but they look like them and live among the trees, so they were given that name. Each of them have distinct patterns on them and they make little jingling noises from the trees; that's how you know they're nearby. They're very rare and difficult to find, but rumor as it that if you see one and make a wish, something very good will happen to you.

I decided to make one of these the other day and I'm not really sure why. I really like making them, though. They're going to be a big part of the universe, though whether or not they'll appear in this book I haven't yet decided.

I've started concepts for riverseals, which are tiny freshwater seals. I had a dream about them once a very long time ago and was reminded of them today when looking into the semi-flooded backyard of my great aunt's house. I'll work on some concept art.

No new writing just yet, but many, many new ideas!

K.

Book update

Spring's here, though it doesn't really look it at present. Things are beginning to melt and thaw and grass, while not green yet, is at least starting to show up.

I think that means it's time for some fresh ideas!

I was working on some ideas last night, meaning that I will get back into working on Rosehips very soon. Life has been hectic but things have calmed down considerably now. I'm finishing one other writing project but when that is complete, Rosehips will be back!

The next thing is calculating what day this is in conjunction with the 365 I have to do this all in! The planned release is still for the fall, by the way. It just means I'll have to work a bit harder.

The ideas from last night are a bit secret. I have some plans for them, though, and I'm back to drawing maps.

Hopefully I'll talk more soon!

K.

Update

I haven't worked on the book for a number of reasons.

- Christmas and exam-time was ridiculously hectic.
- There was a death in the family.
- My computer ate itself.

Rosehips is safe and still planning on being worked on, but with my computer dying, I have some other projects that need immediate attention as the computer-death affected them.

It will still be done this year. You can count on that. I'm just not ready to pick it up again until I have some other projects cleaned up. I hope you understand.

K.

Day 73

I didn't get any writing done today, but I finished the map and wrote several pages worth of encyclopedia info.

K.

Day 72

Sorry about the lack of updates. End of term, and the exams that come with it, approaches!
Writing is not something I have a whole lot of time for at present, sadly. I just did a bit of writing today, and a lot of work on the map of Lemon Forest. I think it looks quite nice. I'm just doing up a rough sketch of it on lined paper, but I'm going to do a large inked version to go in the book! I'll just show you guys the pre-production, and no one else, because there are a few secrets to be found! Nothing that will be explained, of course, but definitely a few interesting things. I'm not sure when this will be done, or how much I'll be able to update over the coming weeks, but nonetheless. . . .

Also, I changed the name of the Lemon Betallion to Lemon-Aid! We can thank my mother for that one!

K.