A few updates have been finished.
Because I kept getting spam on the Vault and Brain pages, I've disabled comments for the Vault and the Brain has been deleted. The mutant monkeys still ask for donations though, just to warn you.
File extensions have been stripped, html etc, so you no longer need to type the whole file name. You might need to refresh pages to see the change. Otherwise, everything is the same.
The Eden Fell free download has expired. Congrats to the 30+ downloaders who snagged their copy. You can still get a free copy with proof of purchase from the shop by filling out an easy form on the Bootleg page.
http://www.lilyauthor.com/bootleg/
Buy cool stuff, get free book. Can't get much cooler than that.
A lot of new designs and products have been added to the shop.
http://www.cafepress.ca/neonvagabond
In a few days, the Vagabond Shop will have its own website. Here's the temporary page, that will probably change, but the url will stay the same.
http://www.neonvagabondshop.com/
And in between all of that, I'm up to chapter three of my current thriller.
I believe spring is in the air.
Showing posts with label New Psychological Thriller novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Psychological Thriller novel. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
New Psychological Thriller by Tweets
I started my next psychological thriller last night and I've opened a Twitter account. You can now watch me go through the creative process of building a novel, in real-time!
The Twitter is now in the right sidebar ------------------------>
Or, click this button and follow me :)
Follow @neonvagabond
The Twitter is now in the right sidebar ------------------------>
Or, click this button and follow me :)
Follow @neonvagabond
Friday, January 13, 2012
Catching up and showing progress
I know my online presence has gotten a bit dusty lately, due to working on a lot things. I've often wondered how online authors find the time to juggle multiple blogs and social networking. I'm always too occupied with my various creative projects. To me, authors who are online 24/7 isn't always a sign they're an active writer. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sharing via the blog and facebook, but I can't help to question an online author who's always blogging. Honestly, where do they find the time?! They have superpowers...
That aside, this is a big catching up post. The past year has been quite eventful for me.
First, last winter, my laptop died. It was quite sad, but all files are saved and nothing was lost. So I had to drag out the old desktop, and that's what I've been working with. But, the post-apocalypse story I was working on is now sitting on a disk, and not on a computer. I would like to get back to that one at some point before my death. Either that, or write beyond the grave. Any volunteer hosts for when I'm a ghost?
Second, another story you may recall has the working title of Strays, well, it just didn't work out. I worked on that one, on and off, for a total of two years and wrote four different versions, a good 300 pages each. Here's what happened.
The first version was written in the first person, alternating chapters between the two main characters. It didn't work, mainly because it's not a romance. And it came across as rather amateur. I honestly thought the genre is general drama and didn't think much about that.
So I wrote a second version, third person, alternating chapters. It still didn't work. I realized there's more mystery than drama, and the story didn't reflect that.
Being the stubborn person that I am, I wrote a third version, all third person. It was a lot better, and all that writing was excellent practice. My writing style and author's voice fully developed as a result. I was ecstatic at my progress, definitely getting there with my long-time goal of being a novelist. But I ran into a snag. As I was working on query letters and outlines so I can publish the damn thing, I got frustrated. Lesson learned here, write the outline and synopsis before writing the book.
In two separate conversations, I vented my frustrations to friends. What am I suppose to do? Rewrite all 300 pages as a romance just for the sake of getting published and sell my soul? It's supposed to be more mystery than drama, a little bit of a love story but that's not the main plot. Ugh!
So we talked about some of the ideas in the story, and they both said the same thing. "Huh, that sounds like Hitchcock." And I went........ oh. Oh! Psychological thriller! Of course! Lesson learned here, always choose the genre before writing the book.
I was very excited. My hard work, experimentation, and constant practice was starting to pay off. I had reached that magical point where writing is like flexing a muscle. Writing style, check. Author's voice, check. Chosen genres, Fantasy and Thriller, check. I made it, I'm here!
In my excitement, I sat down and wrote a fourth version, with the focus of psychological thriller. (Stubborn, remember?) I really believed this was it. After I finished and received some feedback from friends, I took a long objective look at the story. It still doesn't work. I got it very close, but not quite. And I could see the only way to fix this was to write a fifth version, clean slate, start over from scratch. After two years trying, I was burnt out with the story. I had to cut my losses and move on.
I don't regret any of it. Working on that story gave me the needed experience to get to where I am now. No regrets at all. But I will admit, I got way ahead of myself and took the scenic route. It's worked for me, but I wouldn't recommend doing things the hard way like I did.
I was still quite excited, wanted to keep trying the thriller genre, so I looked through my Giant Folder of Ideas (that's not what it's really called on my computer, that's just how I think of it). I came across a story idea I had back in 2003, that I didn't know what to do with, so I just wrote a rough one page and stuffed it in that folder. I took one look at it and instantly thought, this would make a fantastic psychological thriller! I was beyond excited, practically shaking with excitement.
I kept in mind my learned lessons, wrote a synopsis and two page outline, then spent five months straight writing a true psychological thriller. And I'm damn proud of the novel. If I died tomorrow, I would die very happy knowing I've accomplished what I set out to do.
Hello, I'm Lily, author of fantasy and thriller, and it's wonderful to meet you.
While I was working on the book, I noticed my website was falling apart. That's a disadvantage of independent author. Working on one thing meant something else was going to fall apart. It's not easy juggling everything by myself. So I decided once I was finished the manuscript, in order to not drive myself insane while editing, I'd do a major re-haul of my website, designed in a way that reflects where I am now as an author and an artist. And I love my new website. It's fun, interactive, and what I always wanted my website to be.
Yesterday, I submitted the first query letter for my psychological thriller. Keep your fingers crossed for me, you never know, it might be published sooner rather than later.
(And now, I'm going to do a badly needed re-haul of this blog).
Update: new blog layut and the poem, Long Term, is now in the Vault.
That aside, this is a big catching up post. The past year has been quite eventful for me.
First, last winter, my laptop died. It was quite sad, but all files are saved and nothing was lost. So I had to drag out the old desktop, and that's what I've been working with. But, the post-apocalypse story I was working on is now sitting on a disk, and not on a computer. I would like to get back to that one at some point before my death. Either that, or write beyond the grave. Any volunteer hosts for when I'm a ghost?
Second, another story you may recall has the working title of Strays, well, it just didn't work out. I worked on that one, on and off, for a total of two years and wrote four different versions, a good 300 pages each. Here's what happened.
The first version was written in the first person, alternating chapters between the two main characters. It didn't work, mainly because it's not a romance. And it came across as rather amateur. I honestly thought the genre is general drama and didn't think much about that.
So I wrote a second version, third person, alternating chapters. It still didn't work. I realized there's more mystery than drama, and the story didn't reflect that.
Being the stubborn person that I am, I wrote a third version, all third person. It was a lot better, and all that writing was excellent practice. My writing style and author's voice fully developed as a result. I was ecstatic at my progress, definitely getting there with my long-time goal of being a novelist. But I ran into a snag. As I was working on query letters and outlines so I can publish the damn thing, I got frustrated. Lesson learned here, write the outline and synopsis before writing the book.
In two separate conversations, I vented my frustrations to friends. What am I suppose to do? Rewrite all 300 pages as a romance just for the sake of getting published and sell my soul? It's supposed to be more mystery than drama, a little bit of a love story but that's not the main plot. Ugh!
So we talked about some of the ideas in the story, and they both said the same thing. "Huh, that sounds like Hitchcock." And I went........ oh. Oh! Psychological thriller! Of course! Lesson learned here, always choose the genre before writing the book.
I was very excited. My hard work, experimentation, and constant practice was starting to pay off. I had reached that magical point where writing is like flexing a muscle. Writing style, check. Author's voice, check. Chosen genres, Fantasy and Thriller, check. I made it, I'm here!
In my excitement, I sat down and wrote a fourth version, with the focus of psychological thriller. (Stubborn, remember?) I really believed this was it. After I finished and received some feedback from friends, I took a long objective look at the story. It still doesn't work. I got it very close, but not quite. And I could see the only way to fix this was to write a fifth version, clean slate, start over from scratch. After two years trying, I was burnt out with the story. I had to cut my losses and move on.
I don't regret any of it. Working on that story gave me the needed experience to get to where I am now. No regrets at all. But I will admit, I got way ahead of myself and took the scenic route. It's worked for me, but I wouldn't recommend doing things the hard way like I did.
I was still quite excited, wanted to keep trying the thriller genre, so I looked through my Giant Folder of Ideas (that's not what it's really called on my computer, that's just how I think of it). I came across a story idea I had back in 2003, that I didn't know what to do with, so I just wrote a rough one page and stuffed it in that folder. I took one look at it and instantly thought, this would make a fantastic psychological thriller! I was beyond excited, practically shaking with excitement.
I kept in mind my learned lessons, wrote a synopsis and two page outline, then spent five months straight writing a true psychological thriller. And I'm damn proud of the novel. If I died tomorrow, I would die very happy knowing I've accomplished what I set out to do.
Hello, I'm Lily, author of fantasy and thriller, and it's wonderful to meet you.
While I was working on the book, I noticed my website was falling apart. That's a disadvantage of independent author. Working on one thing meant something else was going to fall apart. It's not easy juggling everything by myself. So I decided once I was finished the manuscript, in order to not drive myself insane while editing, I'd do a major re-haul of my website, designed in a way that reflects where I am now as an author and an artist. And I love my new website. It's fun, interactive, and what I always wanted my website to be.
Yesterday, I submitted the first query letter for my psychological thriller. Keep your fingers crossed for me, you never know, it might be published sooner rather than later.
(And now, I'm going to do a badly needed re-haul of this blog).
Update: new blog layut and the poem, Long Term, is now in the Vault.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
It's seriously been since April??? Oh, and a contest
Wow, I'm so sorry. I've been struggling, in between computers, and biding my time while I wait for a better set up. I'm slowly but surely getting things back into shape now.
So it appears during my time away, there's been a blogger update. I no longer need to use Captcha for posting comments. Yay! I really didn't like having to do that, but there wasn't any other way before. This blog is now Captcha free :)
Second most important thing, I've started a new psychological thriller with a southern gothic flair that I absolutely love. It has plot twists that will blow your mind. Sex, violence, intrigue, suspense, yum, can't get much better than this :D I just finished chapter 10, and hope to be finished the draft of a manuscript by the end of the month. I'm loving this story so much, it's straightforward, simple, and highly entertaining.
Last, but certainly not least, I will be starting a contest in the next couple of weeks. I don't have set dates yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post all information here. For the meantime, here's a little info about the contest so everyone can be prepared to get involved. You don't want to miss this one!
Name that Genre Contest!
So it appears during my time away, there's been a blogger update. I no longer need to use Captcha for posting comments. Yay! I really didn't like having to do that, but there wasn't any other way before. This blog is now Captcha free :)
Second most important thing, I've started a new psychological thriller with a southern gothic flair that I absolutely love. It has plot twists that will blow your mind. Sex, violence, intrigue, suspense, yum, can't get much better than this :D I just finished chapter 10, and hope to be finished the draft of a manuscript by the end of the month. I'm loving this story so much, it's straightforward, simple, and highly entertaining.
Last, but certainly not least, I will be starting a contest in the next couple of weeks. I don't have set dates yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post all information here. For the meantime, here's a little info about the contest so everyone can be prepared to get involved. You don't want to miss this one!
Name that Genre Contest!
I wrote a little drabble awhile ago that I don't know what to do with. It's a scene, nothing more. There's no plot. Why doesn't it have a plot? Because I can't seem to figure out the genre to save my life! It's too short and plotless to even be a short story. I have no idea what to do with it...
There's horror, fantasy, mythology, and, um, A LOT of erotica. Maybe some other elements, I'm not sure. Seriously, if there was a heat rating, it would be 1000.
So I'm using this drabble for a contest :D
WARNING: Due to the graphic nature of the drabble, this contest is not for the faint of heart or anyone underage. Sorry, just the way it is. For mature minded people only :)
Deadline for the contest will either be the middle of September or beginning of October (I'm hoping for the former).
Info on prizes and rules will be posted as soon as possible. The drabble will be posted on my website, link pending. In other words, as soon as I get to it ;)
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