I’m maintaining velocity on writing. I’m one chapter away from finishing a story, and then onto the next one. I’m determined to clear up a majority of WIPs so I’m hoping to keep up with it. I find that working at night is best, usually when the household is quiet and everyone is asleep.
I tried writing a bit during downtime at work, but I was too distracted. I don’t know, I feel a little guilty about writing during work hours.
This year I’m finishing some WIPs. Some are fanfics, some are short stories, and another one is a longer fic that I just haven’t been able to finish. My goal is to FINISH what I’ve started. It’s hard for me to finish incomplete stories, so I’m hoping this year’s NaNoWriMo will help me change that habit.
Tonight I started writing! It was hard with a needy dog and a wild toddler vying for my attention, but I managed to get a healthy word count in. Yay!
Yay, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year. I hope I can finish it. I haven’t been able to finish it for a while. I get started, but I never make the word count. It’s been even harder since I’ve become a mom, and I really miss writing so I hope this works out. Now that I work from home, I’m hoping to find writing time during downtime or slow periods and keep up a healthy cadence.
Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year? Add me as a buddy and drop a comment below with your screen name and I’ll add you back. Mine is hkrowe.
Good luck with your writing!
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
I’m planning on several big changes for this site soon. There will be more sections added for reviews, articles, and other offerings. I plan on making this a little more active. It seems I say this and nothing happens, but I assure you it’s a lot of planning in my notebook and new posts will be coming soon as well as new stories and more insight and upcoming publications.
So far on the horizon you can expect:
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these crazy times.
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
You would think this blog is dead, wouldn’t you? But it’s not. I assure you. Don’t believe me? Well, I can’t help that.
Writing status:
Mod Fury is on it’s very very very last edits. I promise!
I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo for April to work on War Fury, the next story. I started it back in November and plan to finish it for camp. Honest!
I have plans to update/organize The Sinner and the Serpent. SOON.
I have not given up on Killer Orange. Edits are going on. Voices won’t shut up. More scenes and rewrites are imminent.
Book Cover status:
I worked on a book cover for a fellow indie author Rebecca Crunden for her book Haze. I will post links and pictures when the book is out. I’m rather proud of it honestly.
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
It’s been awhile since I posted here. I apologize for that. It’s been a busy year for me and I’m hoping to have more time in 2018 to post here. I do maintain an active private personal blog on Dreamwidth/LJ so that makes it harder to juggle social media outlets. Plus having a 1 year old doesn’t always give me adequate time.
I am 98% done with Mod Fury. My goal is to get it out before the end of 2017. Nanowrimo really helped me get far with it and even start the next in the series, even though I didn’t complete the book.
Now the purpose of this post. I am a huge proponent of helping Indie Authors. I am a member of a self-published group and have met some great people there. One of the authors is doing a giveaway and since Goodreads is going to charge for giveaways, she’s doing her own at her blog and at this community. Please, if you enjoy layered characters, action and well done world building, please join her Giveaway. Her book is currently free on Kindle Unlimited.
Anyone can leave a comment to enter! Costs nothing and I’ll ship internationally.
Giveaway // Book Summary // Share Link
Thank you!
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
I know this is an author blog, but it must be boring waiting around for someone to write about “writing” or books and never really get anything. I’m beginning to think that this blog is not all about writing. It’s my blog, so my choice, I guess.
On that note, I work at an IT company and I have a big important meeting tomorrow with a great company in Chicago – on a project that could really boost my career and I’m really excited about it. Unfortunately I’ll be going there on the tail end of a sinus infection and pink eye thanks to my five-month old (don’t worry, I totally plan on bringing this up to her later when she’s older), but life is full of pitfalls. One thing I will not compromise on is my breast pumping. I damn well plan on breastfeeding my kid for a year (or until she weens herself) and I’m sticking with it, no matter where I have to go.
It’s been easy to go to work, pump 2-3 times in the spare office, and then do my work and not worry about being somewhere where I *can’t* do my motherly duty. I asked the Project Manager to make sure they talked to our client and ask where I can go to do my thing, and of course his response that they probably didn’t have some place. I try not to get discouraged about this, because I’ve pumped in bathrooms before — really bad, disgusting ones too, and I made it work.
When he called, they DO have a lactation room, and we got the contact number and person and I’m all set! I get excited when this happens. I ADMIRE companies that have designated rooms for mothers. Then, I kind of want to work there, because the room I have to use, I have to put on a sign to stop people from coming in because there is no lock, and as expected, no one reads signs and interrupts me anyway. Hey dudes, your problem not mine if you saw something you didn’t want to see.
I guess the lesson here is don’t get discouraged. Fight for your rights and take a stand on things that make others uncomfortable. You don’t have to settle for “No.” If I have to bring my cover and sit in the break room and pump with people coming and going, I WILL. I hope I won’t have to, but I will. Anything for my daughter.
She’s the reason I procrastinate on my writing projects.
**
Two short stories are coming soon. I gave myself a deadline for the end of April. Â Yes, Mod Fury is one of them. I’ve teased that enough. The cover reveal is coming shortly too. I promise!
I’m going to attempt Camp NaNoWriMo again this April. It’s hit or miss to find time for myself with a baby, trust me. Sometimes I’d just rather cuddle.
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s been almost a week since I had any severe morning sickness. YAY! I’m still really tired and take naps any chance I get, but at least I don’t feel sick all the time.
I’m getting back into writing. I still write a lot in my journal about my pregnancy, and I’m looking into a couple contests that are coming up. I’m going to ATTEMP Camp Nanowrimo again, so fingers crossed on that. There’s a challenge community at Livejournal that has some prompts that I’m hoping will jumpstart some original fires.
I’m hoping to post some snippets here.
Also, my short story “Mod Fury” about the Greek Furies in modern times seems to be growing into a series. I might release the #0 prequel origin story mid-April. That’s my goal anyway.
“Killer Orange” is still in edit-mode, when I want to look at it! Ha.
I’m trying to just roll with things. We’re still extremely busy with the house and making it ours. I hope everyone is have a good Spring so far. I can’t wait until it gets warm and STAYS warm in the Chicagoland area!
Cheers!
H.K. Rowe
This is a great article. I’m going to save this as well as share this here.
NaNoWriMo Prep: Planning Your Novel
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
I feel like I have spurts of activity here, and I don’t mean to disappear. I do keep up with the people I’m following as best as I can, but sometimes I don’t have a lot to report on my writing front, or life in general I guess.
Spring is here so I’m in a de-clutter mode. Plus, when you live in Chicagoland, when the deep freeze is over, people start wanting to do things and come out of hibernation. So, we’ve got more to do now that it’s nice out. I’m loving to get back to walking my dogs in the warm weather.
Writing is going slowly, but I’m still participating in Camp NaNoWriMo and steadily moving along. My short story is called “Petra’s Revenge” and the more that I think it’s only going to be around 7K, it might end up being 10K in word count. Ah, so it goes.
I’m finalizing the cover for Killer Orange. I’ve been slacking on it even though I’m determined this week to get back to editing. Making the cover has given me some inspiration. I will do a cover reveal in May. So, coming soon!
I have such great support for my books. My husband is of course, is my biggest cheerleader and I don’t know what I would do without him. He even went so far to make me a fan art cover for Killer Orange. It’s ridiculous and made in Paint, but it’s just so like him to be wacky like that, to be encouraging and silly.
But it’s cool to see unlikely sources ask about my books and writing; friends of friends, in-laws, and even my boss.
I’m thankful for warm fuzzy feelings.
Well, back to the real world! Good luck with everything, guys.
Cheers,
H.K. Rowe
*waves*
Hello! Yes, I’m coming out of weeks of being a hermit to update this blog. I’ve been furiously writing my new story Autumn Fire so I could make the NaNoWriMo word count, and I’m happy to say that I have won it this year. There were some times where I got really behind and didn’t think I’d make it, but I came through. I feel very accomplished, which is definitely a confidence booster that I needed lately.
Real life has also been hectic, with Thanksgiving and small road trips here and there. I finish off the month with another small Thanksgiving dinner today with my mother, sister, brother-in-law, and young niece today. It’ll be good times with more turkey and apple pie.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be celebrating my birthday, where I will be doing my first ever Goodreads Giveaway for Unbridled to give out five free signed paperback copies. During the giveaway I will be posting links here.
This blog will go back to a regular schedule, hopefully with regular topics. I am determined to switch gears and finish working Killer Orange to release early next year. Christmas is approaching so I’m hoping for a little more time off from work and things to focus on it. Who knows? The holidays get very busy but I’m pretty adamant to get this done. I think I found a good editor too.
I hope everyone is doing well and that those who participated in NaNoWriMo came out with some great stories.
Cheers!
H.K. Rowe
H.K. Rowe 