Guest Blogs, Limiting Distractions, and Nominations
Hello, readers!
Time flies quickly, doesn't it? It's already more than halfway through January! I still feel like January only started about a week ago. In reality, time is much faster than how I first perceived it. It's been a busy past few weeks with lots of writing new pieces and keeping an eye out for other opportunities.
Guest Blog At Shepherd
Last week, a new guest blog I wrote for Shepherd was published on their site! In this post, I discussed three books I enjoyed reading from 2023.
Thank you to the staff at Shepherd for this opportunity! I hope all of you reading the post get some new book recommendations from this as well.
“Engagement To Die For” nominated for the Queer Indie Awards in 8 categories!
During last month, I mentioned that "Engagement To Die For" was eligible for several nomination categories for the Queer Indie Awards.
I found out just yesterday that "Engagement To Die For" was nominated for EIGHT CATEGORIES! The categories are:
Best Mystery/Thriller
Best Cover
Best Lead Character (Aubri Harlow)
Best Romantic Relationship (Bastian Faullkner & Nick)
Best Supporting Character (Bastian Faulkner)
Best friendship or Platonic Relationship (Aubri Harlow & Bastian Faulkner)
Best Sophomore Book
Best Sequel
If you'd like to vote for ETDF in any of these categories (or even better, all of them!), check out this link.
Voting will close after Friday, January 26th, so make sure to get your votes in before then! See this link for more information about the Queer Indie Awards!
What Have I Been Writing Lately?
In my last newsletter, I discussed figuring out a sustainable writing routine for myself. This, inevitably, involves me trying out different strategies to see what works well for me.
One thing I've been doing lately is reducing multitasking. Not only does this minimize the amount of open apps and/or tabs on browsers, but it'll make getting things done feel less overwhelming and intimidating.
I've also been trying to put other electronics aside (like my phone!) so they don't distract me as much from writing. This is much harder for me to do, as I sometimes still pick up my phone and check it for notifications. However, I did at least notice that I'm a bit more focused than usual lately, so the lack of multitasking and distractions are definitely helping in that area.
As for what actual writing I've gotten done, I've spent plenty of time time submitting short fiction and poetry to literary magazines for hopeful publication! I'm trying to be more active in submitting to these magazines to raise my chances of publication. It's amazing how many literary magazines exist, whether in print and/or online, and many of them already have submission calls opening this month. I don't know how many in total exist in the world, but I keep discovering at least one new one (or ones I haven't heard of before if already established) every few days.
I've also been drafting more of that fantasy book I mentioned in my monthly writing progress blog post earlier this month. I realized that I messed up the order of scenes in this book chronologically. Certain scenes need to take place before others, so I'm now rearranging the scenes so they make more sense.
At this point of writing, partially because of the out-of-order scenes, I also have no idea what to do with the plot based on what I've written so far. I have a determined endpoint for the book, but I have little clue how to get to that point. I don't know if I'll reach my "draft 25% of the book" goal by the end of this month because I need to spend time rearranging and plotting out more of the book in detail, but we'll see what happens.
What Have I Been Reading Lately?
In addition to all this writing going on, I also have been reading a lot lately! Here’s a short list of some recent reads:
"Yours Truly" by Abby Jimenez
"Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
"Happy St. Patrick's Day From The Crayons" by Drew Daywalt (yes, I know it's early, but this was fun to read despite reading it out of season)
"The Courage To Be Creative" by Doreen Virtue
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).
Access the Freebie Library! (Please note: The password has changed to "Buttondown")
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).