Last month I was working on editing Wielder World 3, aka Afflicted to the Core, but I put that all on hold for NaNoWriMo which I participate in every year.
This year, I’m working on a vampire and mage story. Time to mix things up!
To all those NaNoing, good luck! I hope you get your words in.
The Year is Dead, all Hail the Year!
2016 is coming to a close. This year had goods and bads all around. I got to do a big road trip and see the countryside. I attended some fun fandom cons. I made great buddies on Goodreads. I began my entire Nat Kennedy authorship and published two novellas in the Wielder World. I finished another novel for NaNoWriMo. I learned that I much prefer an outline than writing without any idea of where I’m going.
I didn’t get everything I had planned done. I wanted to complete the next novel in the Wielder Series. But that got put on hold for other writerly projects.
So, now, it’s my agenda for 2017.
I will finish Afflicted to the Core – the third Wielder World novel – and get that published, hopefully in late spring. I need to line up betas for it, but I’ve already got the cover art!
I will finish the first novel to my new series – The World of Two Moons. The rough draft is done and in good shape and after Afflicted, it will hopefully come about in a few months. No cover art on that yet.
I will start another novel in either Wielder World or Word of Two Moons. Not sure which yet, but something new will happen!
I want to finish two novellas for anthologies. I hope that will be a great way to get my name out there. I already have two anthologies pegged for this. The first one is due in March.
Those are my goals. I don’t have any ‘write every day’ or ‘spend less time spamming people on Goodreads’. I will just try to focus on the big goals and let the dust and sand fill in the cracks. I want to continue writing and I want to write great romantic fantasy that makes people excited and happy and rooting for the heroes.
Recently, I was interviewed by author and blogger Barb G. Tarn for her website: Creative Barbwire. So, step on over and check out her wonderful website and find out a bit about me.
I’m not sitting idle, but to confess, I’ve been working on another writing project. However, I hope to have Wielder World 3: Afflicted to the Core, out next spring, assuming the editing process goes smoothly.
I have been reading in spare snatches of time: in the bathtub, at lunch, right before bed, and I wanted to recommend Andrea Speed’s Infected series.
Things I like: I like that the werecats are brutal animals while in cat form, that it’s not some human in animal form. I like the fact that Roan isn’t flouncy. He’s not stereotypical anything. He’s just a guy, who happens to be infected and gay. I love Paris. I enjoy the supportive relationship between the two.
Not my favorite: It’s a world that disparages against gays. I like stories where being gay isn’t a major plot issue. Also, there is a gay bar that no straight guy would ever go into. Which, I don’t get. I have plenty of straight friends who will go to gay bars with me. The gays don’t care. The straights don’t care.
This is a good solid rec for me. If you like solid relationships, fun writing, and a great world, give Infected a try.
Fantasy, in all its flavors, is by far my favorite genre. It comes from living alone in the back 40 of central Washington. I like making up worlds. It’s part of why I game and write and daydream.
Never liked romance. Couldn’t get into the cheesy, overthetopness. Often, the female leads were victims, inactive, or too full of impotent wanting, waiting for a man to save them. Not my thing. And the purple prose. So, I never read that genre much (though there were some thriller romances that were pretty good.)
I was not the target audience.
Then I discovered amateur gay romances and erotica. Mainly on free-to-read websites. I thought to myself, why can’t I find more professional books like this? A few years back, I nosed around a bit and discovered quite a book log of gay romantic and erotic stories. Hot damn. The mother load. Further nosing, and I discovered them in the fantasy genre. Books with plot. Now, I am finally a target audience.
This. This is what I want. Gay romantic/erotic fantasy. Romance and erotica slipped into a story that is mainly focused on a plot, with a fantastical world, and active characters out on a quest/stop the bad guy/save the world/insert plot trope here. Heroes who swashbuckle and screw!
If you enjoy plotty romantic stories with gay protagonists and dashes of smut. You, my dears, are my target audience.
(though, on that note, Wielder World does have some build up in the first two novellas. Expect some heat in the third installation.)
Working on the Wielder World and plan on having the first book out in May! Keep your eyes here, or sign up for my newsletter to be updated when it’s out.
Nat Kennedy Books 