VACATION!

Good evening all,

Yes, you read that title correctly. On Wednesday this week, my vacation begins. I’ll be heading out to Upstate New York to spend Thanksgiving with my family and plan to do some serious relaxing while I’m there. But I also plan on working on some new material for the four short stories I’m now working on. What? Am I crazy? Did I just say four? Yes. I did.

All four short stories are completely different from one another so I should be able to at least work on one no matter what kind of mood I’m in! I’ve mentioned a couple of them in earlier blogs so I won’t go back over them. And I want to keep them a surprise!

The only thing that I’m a bit sad about is that my wonderful bud, Lemon Jelly, won’t be able to come with me out there.

Lemon Jelly

Let's face it. There's trouble written all over this face.

No worries, though. He’s in the care of one of my good friends. I know she’ll take very good care of him. Still, it is the longest that I’ve ever been away from him. I worry about him stressing out and potentially doing something like this to my apartment.

 

Hopefully it won’t look like this…

When I return, I will make sure to blog about my adventures out there as well as update you on the status of ‘Aequitas’ and the short stories.

Until next time…

Happy Thanksgiving and happy writing!

~KSilva

Advertisement

I Forgot the Title!

Good morning, all!

Oh, things have been pretty crazy this last week. For one, I survived 11/11/11, a day where I was tortured by listening to bagpipe music for several hours. While I’m pretty open to most kinds of music, I just can’t handle soloing bagpipes. Sorry.

As of an hour ago, I finally finished cataloging all of the major changes that need to be made to draft 4 of “Aequitas.” It can get pretty technical and so I like to have a reference that I can look at when I go through each chapter. It’s more thorough. Now that that’s all done, I can begin the in-depth revision!

My reading last Monday night was amazing! I had been nervous beforehand but once it was finally my turn to get up on the platform and speak into the mic, I found that it was so dark in the lounge that I couldn’t see anyone! That helped, ha ha. It was truly an excellent group of people that we had that evening at Slainte Wine Bar and Lounge. My fellow authors all did fantastic jobs reading and I’d like to take yet another opportunity to thank EJ, Kate, Mikhu, Georgia, and Tom for their readings. It was definitely a blast and I look forward to the next opportunity I get to do a reading.

This week I’ll have more time to focus on revisions and writing. What I did decide is that instead of writing a shorter collection of lilitu-inspired stories for print, I’ll publish them via e-books. Printing costs are so high that I think it would be better to keep that material online. People could still download it to read on their computers as well as for Kindle and Nook. Once I get some of those stories done, I’ll look into that process further.

Yesterday, I was inspired to write a Christmas-themed thriller. I was thinking about the impending Black Friday sales and thought, wouldn’t it be terrific if I could come up with a supernatural-esque thriller centering around that event? I’m still tickled with excitement about it. Imagine going shopping with your family on one of the craziest shopping days of the year. People everywhere, endless commotion, Christmas carols belting from the speakers overhead… Then imagine you turn around and you’re alone. From there on out, I’ve got the whole story already in my head. It’ll be an interesting one for sure.

Next week, I have a vacation that I’ve been looking forward to for a couple months now. I’ll be taking a family trip out to Upstate New York. Whether or not I’ll have much time to get on-line will be a question of what the internet connection is like where I’m staying. What I do know is that I’ll have some necessary r&r time and I’ll be enjoying it!

Well, I think that’s all the news for this week. Now off to get some writing done.

Until next time, good morning and happy writing!

~KSilva

*Just posted it and realized there was no title. You can see how awake I am this morning. Dur!*

A New Look!

Good morning!

As you may have noticed, the page has undergone some revisions! I’ve changed the header picture to something else that I felt was spooky as well as altered the background color so that it matched. I’d love some feedback! I admit that I do miss the way it used to look but I felt an update was needed.

Revisions have begun on ‘Aequitas.’ This stage is merely a read through, making slight changes here and there as I see fit. I’m also making lists of significant plot holes that I find. For anyone who has read the first book, you are probably aware that there is allot going on in it. There are several characters names to keep track of and there are several plot threads going on behind the main one. Hopefully some of the unanswered questions from ‘Vox’ will be answered in ‘Aequitas.’ However, because this series is comprised of five books, it will probably take some time to answer the major ones. Book 3, which I’m focusing on right now, will definitely help to enlighten several things that happened in Seraphim City with Torrent.

Book 3, tentatively titled, ‘Memento Mori’, is a prequel to ‘Vox’ and ‘Aequitas.’ It takes place in Seraphim City several months before ‘Vox’ begins. There is a whole new set of main characters as well as a few that you will recognize. And of course, we mustn’t forget Torrent. He plays a key role in Book 3. At present, I have about a hundred pages written on an old draft of ‘Memento Mori.’ However, some of the characters don’t sit right with me and there are a few cliche scenes which need to be cut. I wrote most of this stuff three or four years ago. It will definitely need to be re-vamped… pun intended.

I’ve also started to write a couple of scenes for Book 4, currently untitled. I’ve had some inspiration the last few days listening to ‘A Stranger’ by A Perfect Circle. The song is so eerie (as is most of their music) and it fit the idea I had for the scene perfectly.

I also wanted to get some of those scenes down because there is a vast difference between Memento Mori and the rest of the books in the series. They are all supernatural horror novels but Memento Mori lends itself to more of the urban horror and noir genres. Because it kind of breaks up the series a little,  I didn’t want to lose my momentum on book 4 by waiting. I’m sure it all sounds confusing, but it makes things easier for me.

In addition to the revisions on ‘Aequitas’, I’ve been writing a short story which provides background info on one of the main characters from the book; sort of an ‘origins’ type of thing. It takes place in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. It shouldn’t be too much longer until that is finished. Not sure if I want to publish it separately from ‘Aequitas’ or if I should include it in a collection of other short stories. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Last but certainly not least, I have my first reading coming up this weekend at Slainte Wine Bar and Lounge in Portland, ME. I’m nervous. I’m slightly relieved by the fact that there will be alcohol available and that it may take some of the jitters out of me. However, public speaking has never been my forte. I’m hoping that I don’t stumble over my words! Here is the link for the Facebook event. If you are in the area and have no plans Monday night, please come and have a listen. I’ll be joined by five other fantastic Maine writers. Readings start at 6:30 pm!

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174452965975546

Well, there is much work to get done so I’d better snap to it!

Until next time, good morning and happy writing!

~KSilva