You Can Tell Doubt to Go Soak Herself

I have some fun news. Of Grace and Chocolate has received official nomination for the 2012 Whitney Awards! There is still a voting process for narrowing down the initial nominees, but this is a bucket list item for me and I didn't think it would happen so soon. I'm just very happy about it.

*happy dance*


Also, I've received news that my next book, THE ORCHARD, will be released sometime around April, 2013! It's so nice to have a general timeline! Even if it seems so FAR WAY!

Also, I am nearly done with SILK, the YA fantasy I've been working on for over a year. I'm really trying to hit it hard and make this story amazing. Then I'll be prepping it to send out. I have knots in my stomach just thinking about it! Good knots. Kinda.

While writing SILK, I've been thinking a lot about character arc. I attended Dan Well's workshop on writing a series at Storymakers and what I loved about it was his breakdown could be applied not only to series, but each book, and each chapter within that book, each scene, and also, the characters.

In SILK, there are 2 main characters, a villain, and 3 more key characters. And they all have POV scenes. At first this worried me, but the more I remember, study, and read fantasy, the less I worry about this. Now my concern is making sure that there is a clear point to giving each of these characters a POV. That they each have definitive character arcs. When I get excited about each one's story, I think I'm on the right track. I find when I'm floundering, it's because I'm not attacking their arc, their growth. When I think about weaving their stories together . . . I get goose bumps.

And then doubt lifts her head and says, "Uh, this is not exceptional."

Yes, Doubt says that. Doubt is a dummy-head.

So I'm still working on it. Don't tell me I can't pull this off. I have to make the attempt.