Category: Sequels

Happy Book Birthday to HAUNTED CHEMISTRY

by Lindsey Loucks, posted in Entangled Publishing, Happy Dance, Haunted Chemistry, Horror, Salt In the Cupboard, Sequels, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried

Two summers ago, when I should have been writing the sequel to The Grave Winner, I saw the open call from Entangled Publishing for romantic horror novellas. I was having a hard time with the sequel, and romantic horror is kind of my thing. Sequel or no, I had to write something, so around the first of July, I started what would become Haunted Chemistry. At the end of the month, I sent it in and geared up for the waiting.

 

Last October, I finally heard back. I remember reading that email again and again in a shock-induced fog. Entangled, publisher of fantastic, best-selling books, wanted…me? Uuuhhhhhh. And that’s when I started hearing colors, bright, happy colors that sounded kind of like a steady squeal.

 

So, yeah, Haunted Chemistry. Here’s the fantastic cover designed by Taria Reed, the blurb, and the buy links:

 

Haunted Chemistry 500

 

When bookish college co-ed Alexis heads to the laundry room in her new apartment, she runs into Ian Reese, the chem lab partner she crushed on all last semester. And the guy who stood her up on their first date. But she’s down for an awkward reunion, and no better place than her creepy laundry room.

 

Ian has every intention of making amends, but just when Alexis begins to trust him again, a new threat calls more than their future together into question. A ghost from the apartment’s past is hellbent on revenge, and if he wants to get his girl, he’ll have to get the ghost first.

 

Amazon

 

Barnes & Noble

 

I’ll be going on a blog tour all week with some other fab authors and their romantic horror novellas, too! One of the tour prizes will be a $50 gift card to the book retailer of your choice! I’ll post the tour schedule soon. Until then, happy haunting!

 

P.S. That sequel that was giving me trouble? It’s finished. I sent it to my publisher last week and they sent me a contract that very same day! My squeals have turned purple!!

 

My Knickers Aren’t in a Twist Over Word Count – Are Yours?

by Lindsey Loucks, posted in A Boy and Her Scratch, First Drafts, Life, Real life, Sequels, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried, Word Count, Writing
From openclipart.org

 

So NaNoWriMo is over, and while I didn’t participate, I did try to write a little every day on A Boy and Her Scratch. I didn’t succeed, and I didn’t even come close to 50,000 words. But I’m okay with that.

 

The story and characters have solidified in the 10,338 words I’ve written on it, which is always a plus. I keep fighting the urge to go back and “fix” things because the first draft is supposed to look like word vomit, and it does, so yay! I’ve decided to keep writing this story until December 31st, and then at midnight, instead of turning into a pumpkin, I’ll start writing like a mad woman on What Gifts She Carried.

 

From January onward, I won’t be staying the night at work (something I did do in November), I won’t have as many loooong work days, and I won’t be going out of town. It gets too cold in Kansas to do anything but stay home in my pajamas and write anyway!

 

My point to all this rambling is that I’m trying this new thing where I don’t stress about writing. I let it happen, word by word. It’s slow going, but I’ll get there.

 

Does word count stress you out? Does getting the book finished twist your knickers?

Make Nice With Your Muse

by Lindsey Loucks, posted in Critique Partners, First Drafts, Ideas, Mood, NaNoWriMo, Sequels, Story Ideas, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried, Word Count, Writing
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

No no NaNoWriMo. I won’t participate in you this year or next year or never but I will cheer for participants from the sidelines.

 

Why? I’m a slow writer, like 1000 words in three hours slow. I try not to stress about making things look pretty in a first draft, but I do anyway. Plus, I have to stop and picture what’s happening in my head. It’s like watching a movie in painfully slow motion.

 

But I’m using NaNoWriMo as inspiration to learn how to not worry so much and speed up the pictures. I’m also using it to get inspired to write after I get home from school. I used to think a sleepy brain tells sleepy stories, but a sleepy brain is the norm now, and sleepy brains still have stories to tell.

 

The story I should be telling is the sequel to The Grave Winner, but it’s still coming together in my head. So my muse has hammered another story into my brain (ow!) while I let the sequel percolate. That’s the story I’m working on now, and I feel like I should make nice with my muse in case it flips me the bird and abandons me.

 

This new story has ghosts in space, in case you’re wondering. It also has some sexy times in it because it’s not YA. The title is A Boy and Her Scratch.

 

The sequel to The Grave Winner is coming, I promise! Please don’t hate me, Fabulous Editor Melissa and my Must Have Critique Partners and my Totally Tubular beta reader and everyone else who has made it this far through my ramblings!

 

Anyone else have a muse? Anyone else pet it and feed it cookies so it won’t flip you the bird?

 

P.S. I voted today!

How To Write the First Draft of a Sequel in 6 Easy Steps

by Lindsey Loucks, posted in First Drafts, Sequels, The Grave Winner, What Gifts She Carried, Writing

What Gifts She Carried, book two of The Grave Winner series, is coming along. Not nicely, but it’s coming along. I’m already on page 36, so yay for that! It turns out that writing a sequel, much like writing any book, is hard. If you’re going through this too, here are some tips to keep from stabbing yourself in the eye with a french fry:

From www.bestuff.com

1. Open book one on your computer for reference. You don’t want your MC’s little sister to have a potty mouth or have a sudden fascination with vampire unicorns when she didn’t in book one. Well, I guess you could as long as there’s a reason for it.

2. Sneak in bits of back story throughout the beginning chapters. Readers may have forgotten what’s happened since reading book one and could use brief reminders here and there.

3. Look back at book one and remind yourself that it was crap too at one time. Don’t let the first draft blues suck your writing confidence through a straw.

4. Keep your novel outline close, but don’t be afraid to push it away every once in awhile. If a good idea comes to you that’s not on the outline, use it. If it surprises you, it will surprise your readers.

5. Resist the urge to go back and edit. Resist, I tell you! Puke up the story first, clean it up later. Ugh, sorry about that metaphor. I hope you weren’t eating.

6. Keep writing. Yes, that’s a given, but even if you’re not feeling it some days, keep writing. Have a daily word count goal or a daily that-would-be-really-cool-if-I-got-this-many-words-written-but-whatever-goal. I do the latter ‘cuz that’s how I roll.

Anyone else have some tips?