Working Hard or Hardly Working!

Hello world!

So, I didn't keep my promise to update once a month. I skipped May and June. In my defense, May was filled with finals and June was job searching (Oh how I loathe job searching) and interview going (how I hate you more). You don't want to know the hours I spent online applying for jobs, but it payed off, yes it did. So now I've settled into my new cushy life (ha ha, yeah right) and FINALLY have time to blog again. The people who make time for blogging and staying up on social media while juggling a crap load of other things are surely mutant superheroes.

So more Deadly Caress edits. Nic (the most wonderful agent) and I both think we're getting close to the home stretch with the manuscript. Working on Deadly Fury as well. The May and June havoc bled into my writing as well, so not much progress there. I'm planning to shut myself in a windowless room this weekend and write until my fingers cramp...and then I'm going to write some more.

I hope everyone that went to RWA13 had a great time. I was contemplating going, before May and June struck, but it wasn't in the cards for this year. You can definitely catch me at RT14, because who would pass up the opportunity to go to New Orleans, and maybe RWA14 as well.

I am going to keep my promise to post, if I have to talk about mundane crap or what crazy things my four year old has said. Come to think of it, that might be much more entertaining than anything I have to say.

J.S.

Long Time No See

I've been MIA from posting for months and I feel really bad about it. I've just been so busy with Deadly Caress edits and school. But I'm committing myself to posting twice a month or as often as I have news.

So what's been going on in the world of J.S.Walker...not much. Well, to me it's not much. If I'm not marching down State Street wearing a crown with my loyal subjects cheering behind me, my life is boring (just a little dry humor). I'm wrapping up my second year at Columbia. I love that school, but I'm at the point where you just want to sit around in sweats and do nothing all day, so having to get up at 5:30am for classes really sucks. The good thing is now I can apply to the BFA (Bachelors of Fine Arts) program. The F just means I take less general courses and twice as many in my major. I'm also debating on whether I should take a Professional Writing minor...more on that later.

In my writing...well I got one of my short stories published my Columbia's Story Week Reader. It's a cool anthology of some of the best stories (that were submitted) in the Fiction department. And I mean short story. They all had to be 750 words or less. Come to think if it, this was probably something I could've talked about on here when it happened. Yeah, my thinking isn't so smart sometimes. (Don't hold that last sentence against me. I can definitely string words together better than that....just barely.) So I guess I'll have another post about that later with the link where you can read the story.

I'm writing Deadly Fury, book two in the Deadly Seven Series, well sort of. I HAD decided to use my first advance fiction class to write as much of the book as possible. Well I didn't count on not being able to write a single word. I was as stuck as a bloated woman in her fav skinny jeans. I  couldn't string a single plot point together. Finally, after a grueling 8 weeks, yes 8 weeks, I was able to write chapter two and half of chapter three. Not much, I know, but it's a start. The great thing is that it gave me an opportunity to think and I was able to map out a lot of my story and get to know my characters better. I learned a lot I hadn't known before. My goal is to, if not finish, than get the majority of the book finished before the fall. Cross your fingers!

So you're all caught up. I'm going to post about Story Week, which was almost a month ago, some time next week with the link to my story. Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @jswalker_author or like me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/JS-Walker/261715640513667?ref=hl

Deadly Fury on Hold!

*not my writing, just a pic*

So as the title says Deadly Fury is on hold...at least for a little while. I'm working extensively on Deadly Caress edits for the foreseeable future. Who knew writing a book would be so hard! No, but editing does suck and I see why most authors say it's the part they hate most. My agent is awesome though and helping a lot, so here goes round one of series edits. There's a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm hoping it'll pay off! More updates soon...

New Widget!

I just added a new word progress meter to the blog! I'm excited! I've always seen them around and I couldn't figure out how to get one, but after extensive web research (bless the internet), I finally found it! So as you can see I've just barely started Deadly Fury, but I'm hoping the sad little meter will give me incentive to write.

Next week, on Tuesday, I'm going to be featured on Jalisa Blackman's blog as I answer questions for her "Minority Report". So come over and check it out. The link to the website is bellow. More updates soon!

http://jmblackmanwriting.wordpress.com/

First Edits Done!

I have finally finished the first round of edits on Deadly Caress! I'm so excited.  I feel like things are moving, and I couldn't be more happy. So I've sent it off to my amazing agent, Nicole Resciniti, and now I'm waiting for her to finish and then on to round two of edits!

Also I've realized that my brain hates/loves me. I'd planned to take a little break before starting Deadly Fury, Book 2, but the ideas won't stop coming. So I've started working on it. Here's a little taste of it. The opening paragraph...

Tear-assing down a back alley after demon scum, Zorn was mad enough to spit fire, literally. Though the fire would come from his hands, not his mouth, it wouldn't be any less fucking effective. When he caught the bastard he was going to barbecue the fucker; demon nuts roasting on an open fire. And he would enjoy every damn minute of it. 

More updates soon!

Deadly Caress Ending Party!

I AM OFFICIALLY FINISHED WITH DEADLY CARESS! It's party time baby! I feel so great for having finally finished this story that I've been working on since last October. My baby has finally been born. Now it's time to watch it grow up. I'll start edits on the manuscript tonight, and I'm even more excited to get started doing that. It'll be great to read my story from start to finish, while editing it of course, to see the entire product together. So the finished result of working on this book while in school and the mad dash I've done to get it finished since school ended is a 377 page 113, 469 word manuscript! Of course I haven't edited yet so that will definitely change, but I'm still happy I accomplished something so great. All those who have done it know that writing a book is not easy. Hell, it's hard, but when you do what you love it doesn't feel so much like work.

I want to thank my mother who has been a giant help as I've written this manuscript. She's edited Every chapter  (there are 30 and a prologue) laughed and got frustrated with me over the characters and the plot. She's helped me develop the story and given me ideas when I was stuck, so thank you so much! And now she and I are going to start from the beginning and edit the hell out of it! Deadly Caress is the second manuscript I've finished, but it's the first I've seriously thought about getting published, and it's the first one that I think is good enough to publish.

On another note, I plan on starting writing the next book in the Deadly Seven serious after I finish the edits of DC. I'm really excited to start that book too! The next book will be about the deadly sin Wrath and will probably pick up a few months after Deadly Caress ends. I have a name for the book, but I'm not sure how much I love it. So right now it's called Deadly Fury, but I was also thinking of Deadly Fire. I'll post more updates on the second book soon!

Novel Countdown Update! One Week to Go!

So like the title says I am one week away from finishing Deadly Caress! I'm extremely excited to be finished. This past week I got four chapters finished instead of just three. I'd planned to work from Tuesday to Saturday and then give myself a break, but life happens and I've been kind of sick so it took be until Monday to finish. But in that time I got 15,000 words writing! So I've started writing for this final stretch today and I'm going to be done Friday if nothing else happens. My word count for the entire manuscript right now is 90K and some change! Four more chapters to go!