Finally! I am able to get onto my blog and get some posts written :P. The reason I've been so absent of late is because one, my old laptop decided to stop functioning properly (could not access my blog to add posts to save my life) and two, I've been very busy with writing and writing events. So, first off I think I'll start with a recap of the past month or so.
The Vegas Valley Festival of Books was not what I'd call a huge success, but it was a small book festival and I met some interesting and wonderful people while there. Also, I got to see Las Vegas for the first time and I have to say, it was pretty awesome. I can see myself going back again someday; maybe to next year's festival ;).
Secondly, for those of you who don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter, Ghalien is up on all the sites where ebooks are sold (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iBooks, Sony and Kobo) and is also available from Amazon as a paperback book. I'll be working on getting a link up on my sidebar. Ghalien ended up being a novel-length book and a good chunk of it strictly consists of Cade's adventures during the summer between Faelorehn and Dolmarehn while he's away from Meghan. I also delve deeper into Enorah's past in this one and you also get to meet a few new characters (one of them will be playing a pretty significant role in the next Otherworld novel told from Robyn's point of view . . .).
Ah, and about that next novel . . . For so long I've been calling it "Robyn's story", even though I've had a title for it for some time now. Perhaps I'm a little reluctant to share because Ghalien took so much longer than I thought it would to publish, and you were left with the title and cover image and no book in the foreseeable future. I feel, however, that I'm ready to reveal the title for Robyn's story, if not the cover image (although I have that done as well ;) ). With that being said, the title for Robyn's story and the next Otherworld novel will be Lorehnin. For those of you who have already read Ghalien, you might have some ideas about what to expect. For those of you who haven't read Ghalien, now might be a good time to start :).
As of right now, Lorehnin is somewhere in the 96,000 word count range, though that could change drastically as I tie up all the loose ends. And yes, I'm getting close to the end, but it may take a while to read through and edit, so I plead for your patience.
With that being said, I'd like to spend a little time talking about my decision to take part in NaNoWriMo. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, no explanation is needed, but for those who do not, feel free to read on.
National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo)
November is National Novel Writing Month and it is a time of year for writers, newbies and pros alike, to sit down and get some serious authoring done. Although I've known about it for quite some time, I've never taken part, maybe because of the way I write. I usually go through spurts, where I might write 10,000 words in one week and then write nothing for the next one. NaNoWriMo challenges writers to type 50,000 words in thirty days, so I was a bit leery about signing up. This year, however, my local writing group encouraged me to do so, and so far I've managed to keep up.
Originally, I mapped out an entirely new project for NaNo, but that quickly went by the wayside as my other current projects - most notably the manuscript for Lorehnin - (and some other books that have been sitting on the back burner) insisted on attention. So, I've been using NaNoWriMo to finish up this next Otherworld novel and to add some substance to my other books. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to include the fourth Oescienne book in this pile as well, but no new plot twists have come to mind yet.
So as you can see, I've been quite busy. I have a few events coming up, including the Tucson Festival of Books in the spring, and I'm going to try and get a booth at FaerieCon West in Seattle, which will take place in February, though plans for that have yet to be solidified.
I hope I'll be able to post more now that I have gotten past my technology glitch, and I hope to have Lorehnin out to you as soon as possible. As always, thank you for all of your support and until next time, happy reading!
-J.E. Johnson
