2021 Year in Review

Hi all,

As with last year, I’m going to give you the run down of 2021! Some goals I hit, while others I didn’t get anywhere near. My mental health has suffered a lot this past year and I’m hoping that 2022 will be better for me.

Write three books.

If I manage to finish Street Rats by the end of the year, I would have written five! The ones that I have written are:

Curse of Anubis #2: Limbo.

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Street Rats.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

Plan nine more Elemental Dragons books.

I’ve managed to plot out all of the books in the series, and I’ve written the first book! In a few weeks time I will start writing Elemental Dragons #2: Marine and I’m hoping to get it finished before April 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo.

Publish two books.

As promised, Elemental Dragons #4: Cinder and Fire was published in April and Mute was published in October.

Create and publish the Elemental Dragons boxset.

This was published in July, and I didn’t realise how tricky it was going to be! Combining four books into one took a lot of work and formatting to make sure everything was in the right place.

Get two covers designed.

Both Mute and Years got their covers designed. The cover for Years will be revealed in a few weeks. I also got a cover designed for Mute’s prequel, Famished.

Edit three books.

I only edited one book, Years. As I said before my mental health has been pretty low, especially towards the end of the year. And getting Years back from my editor took several blows out of my self-esteem, to the point where I still haven’t gone back through all of the edits now. It will be ready by April, but for a few weeks I wondered if continuing to publish books was the right thing.

Hire a sensitivity reader.

As I have only just started editing Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana myself, I haven’t had the chance to look through sensitivity readers. I’m hoping to get this done next year.

Write more short stories.

I have written a lot more short stories this year, one of which has been accepted into an anthology! This should be released next year, and I’ll keep you posted.

Write Curse of Anubis short story/novella.

I tried writing a few ideas I had but none of them seemed right so I’ve scrapped them. For now I’m focusing on the reader magnet for Years.

Read 30 books.

I’m not entirely sure how I did it, but I read 200 books! Due to the way I was feeling I dove into books to escape a lot more than I have in previous years. Hopefully I can continue to read more next year!

Participate in both Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I joined both the April and July Camp NaNoWriMos and NaNoWriMo. I managed to get the first drafts finished for:

Curse of Anubis #3: Middle.

Curse of Anubis #4: Dual.

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’ll talk about my goals for 2022! See you then.

PS; looking for some new books to read in the new year? Check out the ones in these bundles:

New Year, New Monsters 2: From the Ashes

New Year, New Worlds SF/F Giveaway

The Warriors Short Story Competition

Hi all!

If you're not a fan of the Warriors, or Warriors Cats, series, you may not have any idea of what I'm going to talk about today. Warriors is a book series written by Erin Hunter, a penname for multiple authors. The Warriors series focuses on groups of cats, called Clans, that live around a forest and later on a lake. There are hundreds of characters from the series and the authors have written 60+ books. If you haven't seen my other blog posts on Warriors, you can check them out here and here.

The latest Warriors book to be published

So, when it was announced that Warriors would be holding their first ever short story collection, I could feel the younger version of me getting excited. Despite all of the fanfiction that has been written on the series, the website has never held a competition for all the authors out there. This competition has been split to under 13s and over 13s. 500 words have to be written, following on from the prompt that they have provided.

Although I wish they would have given us a higher word count and more freedom to write what we wanted, I still think it's an interesting prompt. We are introduced to a few cats from ThunderClan and also given a few hints as to what we can write about. I have decided that I will continue to write from Brightpaw's perspective, and pick the story up from when they leave camp. I'm not sure about what characters to include yet, as the word count is so low that you can't introduce that many. But I do have an idea of where I want the story to go.

Some tips for if you do want to enter:

Don’t include too many characters - you’ll run out of words more quickly.

Don’t focus too much on description - you don’t have enough words.

You don’t need to follow the prompt to the letter - if you want Brightpaw to head to RiverClan or twolegplace, go with that instead! Don’t feel pressured to make her interact with her siblings or Swiftpaw.

StarClan does not need to appear - you can just write an ordinary day if you want to.

Want to switch POV? - Don’t be afraid to do this if you don’t want to write about Brightpaw or ThunderClan.

Foreshadow if you want to - You can foreshadow any future event you want.

If this competition is successful, I hope they do more. Perhaps they could give us the freedom to write about any events from the books, or even for people to use their own characters. I'm hoping that they will expand on this in the future, as it could lead to some amazing stories from fans. I would also love to write more about my original character, Russetheart, as it's been years since I've revisited her story.

The competition entry page

I still read every Warriors book that comes out now, and I can't wait to start writing my entry. The deadline is the 10th December, so I'm hoping to finish NaNoWriMo and then start working on my entry. Perhaps after the winners have been announced I'll share what I wrote about in a separate blog post!

If you're a fan of the series and want to enter, I'd advise you do it. After all, you haven't got anything to lose! If you want to check it out, you can here: Competition Page.

And the entry page is here, with the prompt and rules: Prompt and Rules.

Good luck to anyone who enters!

That's it for this week, see you next week!

My Favourite Horror Tropes

Hi all!

As it's Halloween today I thought I'd write a horror related blog post! I read and watch a lot of horror, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favourite horror media tropes.

Ancient Tombs/Pyramids

I love horror that is set in a cramped space such as a tomb. In most cases the villain are undead or angry gods. I love seeing characters try to escape while trapped in such a small area and get picked off one by one. My favourite film with this trope is The Pyramid.

Events After an Apocalypse.

Seeing the world get destroyed by deadly viruses or nuclear weapons never gets old in my eyes. You get to see the characters adjust to their new world and the threats around them. I especially like the virus trope, as other characters see their loved ones deteriorate and develop symptoms.

Creatures That Can't Move.

The way that I've seen this done best is the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who. The monster can't move while it's being watched, but then it's up to the characters to continually keep their eyes on it. At some point, they eventually look away.

I don’t think Rocky would be much help in a horror film…

Cat Scares.

In films, you think there's going to be a massive jump scare but instead it's just a cat. If you've read my other blog posts you'll know why I like this one!

Long Limbs.

I don't know why disproportionally long arms freak me out so much. It always send a shiver down my spine. It's why I used a wendigo in Mute, as they can be known to grow larger the older they are.

Research Labs.

A group of people are working away on an experimental government project in a lab and it escapes! It then hunts everyone down one by one until it either escapes or is killed in a dramatic fashion. The experiment usually has only one weakness, which the characters take ages to figure out. I love this one as you never know exactly when the monster is going to pop up.

Aliens.

An alien creature is accidentally brought onto a ship and wreaks havoc while killing everyone. The Alien franchise is great for this, especially in the second film when there was hundreds of Xenomorphs!

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; looking for some last minute horror books? Check out the ones in these bundles!

October Tricks and Treats

Halloween Frights

Books That I Would Love to Read More Of

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about what kinds of books I would love to read more of! For once, this will not be about cats or dragons... Probably.

Giant Sharks.

I absolutely love b-movies, and can't get enough of books that are also like b-movies. The best ones for me will always be ones containing giant sharks. The ones where the sharks are gigantic due to nuclear waste or scientific experiments. They're usually super silly and such a joy to read!

Dinosaurs.

I can't seem to find many fiction books about dinosaurs. I'd love to read more about dinosaurs that have escaped from captivity, or have somehow survived the extinction event that wiped them all out. My favourite dinosaur of all time is the velociraptor, and I do love films and books about them.

Monsters.

To me, there's nothing better than a good monster story. Some people accidentally wake up a monster that's been sleeping for a thousand years, and it starts to wreak havoc. Unfortunately I can't seem to find many of these books that I can really get into.

Giant Bugs.

Again, this goes back to b-movies. I love watching some poorly designed 3D spider attacking people in a sleepy village. I managed to find a series about smarter, larger pests that I devoured. Now I'm hoping to find more books like it!

Monster Fights.

One monster being pitted against another. Which one will survive? Will the humans kill both? Nothing beats a good monster rumble. Whether it be between Crocoshark vs Sharktopus or Godzilla vs King Kong, I'd love to read more books where this is the focus!

That's it for this week! Next week I’m going to talk about an award - the SoundArt Dragon Award, keep an eye out for that post!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the ones in this bundle - all Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Dragon Books to Read While Waiting for Cinder and Fire

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about my top three favourite dragon series (apart from Elemental Dragons, of course)!

I've discovered two of these quite recently, and I've fallen in love with them quite quickly. I thought I would share them with you guys so then you can check them out while waiting for Cinder and Fire to come out! I recommend all of these series to readers of Elemental Dragons. The links to the books are in the name and author!

So, without further ado:

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

I found this series through Warriors, my all-time favourite series. The books are told from the point of view of dragons. In the first series, five dragonets have to stop the Sandwing War as prophesised. However, this doesn't go to plan. My favourite series is the second one, as I was drawn to all of the characters and wanted to read the next book as soon as I finished one. My favourite characters are Glory and Moonwatcher.

Dragon Assassin by Arthur Slade

I thought this was a weird combination at first, but I was quickly drawn into these books. I love the dynamic between Carmen, the assassin and Brax, the dragon. They strike a deal, he helps her kill her brother who has slaughtered most of her assassin academy, and in return she will kill whoever he wishes. Brax is sarcastic and tries to pretend he doesn't care for Carmen, but it's obvious he does.

Dragon School by Sarah K. L. Wilson

These books are told from the point of view of Amel, a servant girl with a disability. She wants to become part of the Dragon School, where she can train to be a dragon rider. When she chooses her dragon, she instead finds that he chooses her. Her and Raolcan have to save her friends, while facing the disappointed mocking of dragon riders who don't think Amel should have gotten a chance.

That's it for this week, I hope if you do decide to check out any of these books that you enjoy them! See you next week.

Only a few days left to check out the books in this fantasy bundle!

NEW YEAR HIGHS AND MYTHOLOGY

2020 Year in Review

Hi all!

Next week I'm going to write about my 2021 writing goals, so this week I thought I would look back on my writing goals of 2020!

Write two books

I've managed to write four books this year:

Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory

Years

Mute

Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway

Publish two books

Elemental Dragons #2: Venom and Earth and Elemental Dragons #3: Glass and Ice were both published this year, thanks to everyone who has read them!

Get three covers designed

Elemental Dragons is now complete with covers, and I managed to get one for Celestial Plague: Seashine. Seashine's cover will be revealed at some point next year.

Edit two books

Although I wanted to edit Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana, instead I edited Mute. But I still manged to meet my goal, despite swapping the books around!

Write four short stories

I've written multiple short stories this year, though I didn't manage to get any published. I've posted a lot of them in my monthly newsletter for my subscribers to read. I also hope to combine some into an anthology of sorts once I have enough of the same genre.

Read 15 books

Due to lockdown I managed to blow this goal out of the water. I have read 100 books this year! Most of them were ones that I had wanted to read for a while, like Wings of Fire and Five Nights at Freddy's. However I also discovered new authors this year whose work I love.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo

I participated in both this year, with writing Years, Mute and Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I will discuss my goals for 2021. See you next week!

PS; looking for new books to add to your list in the New Year? Check out these book bundles:

Fantasy Reads for Cold Winter Nights

New Year, New Monsters!

The Book Series That Made me Want to be an Author

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about the book series that made me want to write, and to have a career as an author. For those of you who know me, I'm sure you already know what I'm about to say.

Yes, it was Warriors (or Warriors Cats) by Erin Hunter.

As a cat lover, the premise of feline characters drew me in, but the storylines kept me interested. I loved the idea of cats having their own society out in the forest, with their hierarchy and ways of living. They also have a lot of drama, which makes for great reading. I've cried at so many character deaths and laughed at so many of their blunders across the years. I even contributed my own Warriors fanfiction on their forums, which ended up being pretty popular on their site for a while.

Yes, the stories were bad.

But people loved them, and it made me want to write more.

It didn't start there however, it started when I was about nine or ten, when I had just finished reading my first few Warriors books. I decided that I would re-write the entire first book with the same plot line and characters, but add in my own character as well. She was terrible, she was a prissy Mary-Sue who could shoot lightning, but it got me into writing. My grandfather used to read what I had written after every chapter and pushed me to keep going, so I did.

I had a whole host of favourite characters, but the one that stood out to me the most was Russetfur. I loved her attitude and her loyalty. Over the years she would gradually pop up in more books, but I always wanted to read more of her. So, at sixteen I went on the Warrior Cats forums and started writing 'poll stories' where your fans could decide what happens next with a character based off Russetfur. Although the cats couldn't shoot lightning bolts, they were representative of five elements: fire, water, air, earth and poison. (Now do you see where the elements for Elemental Dragons are starting to come in?)

Although I loved writing about cats, I didn't think people would take me seriously if I was solely a cat author. So, I decided that I would write about broad subjects, but every book that I write will have a cat or a feline in it. So far, the cats are:

Elemental Dragons - Normie (cat)

Celestial Plague - Raya (panther shifter)

Mute - Solaris (cat)

Years - unnamed (cat made of solar flares)

Curse of Anubis - Bastet (cat goddess)

I still read books in the Warriors series now, and have an entire bookshelf dedicated to displaying my collection. If I hadn't started reading the books, I may never have got into writing. Without them, I'm not sure where I'd be today.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I'm going to collect all my quotes from Halfway that I've been posting Twitter throughout the month to give everyone a chance to read the ones they may have missed.

See you next week!

Looking for a new book for Christmas? Check out this bundle!

Begin New Journeys with Series Starters Free in KU

My Least Favourite Writing Tropes

Hi all!

This blog post is a sequel to one I wrote a month ago, about my favourite writing tropes. I thought I would also write about my least favourite writing tropes, as there are quite a few of those as well.

Love Triangles.

I hate seeing characters angst about who to choose to date. It doesn't help that they always seem to go for the one I don't really like either. Usually a love triangle just portrays the character as being this attractive person who can't keep others away, even though they think they're ugly. Watching two characters vie for the attention of one just doesn't interest me whatsoever. In most cases I hope the character will just find someone else, or one of the love interests will.

Family members being abusive, but they have a reason for doing so.

I hate this trope with a passion. Abuse is never justified. However, in some books they try to justify that abuse with reasons like: the character's mother died giving birth or they remind a family member of a lost loved one. Just no. Just because the family holds some sort of grudge against the character doesn't mean they can abuse them in order to 'make them stronger'. I also hate it when the family member is on their death bed and begs for forgiveness, and the character forgives them in a heartbeat just because they're dying.

Evil Dragons/Dragonrider Steed.

Dragons being evil just doesn't interest me anymore. It's been so overdone, they're either the monster the hero has to slay or the keeper of some great artifact. There's just so much that can be done with dragons that I get bored when they're just a steed for the hero.

Whiny MCs.

A main character is supposed to be the one the reader can relate to most, but I find it hard to connect with selfish characters. For example, one of their friends die in battle and they try to get all the attention back on them when others are trying to mourn. Another example is when they have powers to destroy the antagonist but instead sitting around sulking that it 'had to be them'.

Medieval Fantasy.

I hate reading about fantasy that is set in a medieval world where technology hasn't progressed. Along with it the female characters are usually treated like crap for being women and are nothing but love interests for the hero. This type of fantasy just does not hook me at all.

Elderly mentor.

I hate it when the MC has an elderly mentor that trains them only to die halfway through the book. The rest of the story is just following the MC on their quest to avenge their mentor they, sometimes, barely know.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I’ll be doing the cover reveal for Cinder and Fire, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled!

Looking for a new series to read? Check out these books:

Begin New Journeys with Series Starters Free in KU

Why You Should Download Free Ebooks

Hi all! 

This week I'm going to talk about something that I only really started using once the lockdown started - free ebooks in the kindle store. I never really took much notice of it before as I like to read authors I have already read before. 

But then I had to isolate due to possible COVID-19 symptoms. 

At first I just bought a load of ebooks that I had intended on reading for a while but never got around to them. Once I finished them I decided to browse what free books were on offer. 

I downloaded quite a few, and two books in particular I liked so much I bought the rest in the series. I never even thought that I could find books that I would love from authors I've never read before. Because of this, I've also been able to bump up my Goodreads challenge to 100 books read this year as I'm finding so many new things to read. Before downloading free ebooks finding 20 books to read was a challenge!

It was worth it. 

Now I browse it once a week looking for new titles I might like. I usually tend to choose books that are the first in a series and if I like them I'll purchase the rest.

Drug by Lynda O’Rourke - by far my favourite of all the free ebooks I’ve downloaded.

So, onto the reasons why you should download free ebooks:

They're free.

This might seem like an obvious one but it's true. You can try an unknown author without costing you a penny. You might find your next favourite book! 

No risk, high reward. 

Although there are some bad books in the free category, there are also bad ones in the paid one. Downloading free ebooks is no risk to you, as if you don't like the book, then you can at least try it at no cost to you. 

Reviews.

Permafree ebooks tend to have a few more reviews as usual. This is because as they are free people are more likely to read them, and more eyes on them increases the likelihood of a review. As a reader you can take advantage of this and read what other people liked/didin't like before downloading.

It supports authors.

A lot of authors struggle to get readers so they'll put their book in the free category for a few days or permanently. By downloading, you're showing them support while also getting a new book. You might even find your next favourite author!

If you find one you like, you can download the rest in the series. 

By downloading the rest of a series despite them not being free you're also supporting the author. It also gives them an incentive to keep working on that series. 

There's a lot of variety.

There are so many free ebooks out there that you're sure to find one you love. I've downloaded a few books that aren't usually my genre but ended up liking, you never know what you'll find!

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week! 

Why It's Okay That Your Partner Doesn't Read Your Writing

Hi all,

There was a thread on Twitter about significant others reading your writing a few weeks ago. The responses were mixed, but it's still bothering me so I wanted to offer my opinion on the situation. Some are saying that your partner absolutely must read all of your work, while others say it isn't necessary.

No, my boyfriend has not read my books.

Does it bother me?

It used to, as I thought that he had to read my work to support my writing career. After all, how could he support me if he had no idea what my writing was like? But now, I don't care.

I'm more into fiction books, whereas my boyfriend doesn't really read them. He prefers news articles and politics, which isn't really my thing. He has attempted to read my book, but hits a block a few chapters in. He says it's good, but he just can't get into it as it's not his genre, which is fine.

A lot of people were saying that your partner should read all of your work. I don't agree with this however, if it's not their thing you can't force them to read through it all. They won't enjoy the experience and will try to avoid reading it. Some people were going to the extreme by saying you should dump partners that don't read your work.

This shouldn't need saying, but don't do this.

There are other ways to support your writing apart from reading it. My boyfriend encourages me to keep writing and celebrates with me whenever I get a good review or feedback. He's also there when people didn't like it, assuring me that their opinion is subjective.

Support doesn't equal reading.

Everyone is different and they will show their support in different ways. Don't shame them for not reading your work. Also, just because you do something for them, doesn't mean they owe you reading a whole book in return. 

Especially don't take relationship advice from people on Twitter who have no idea what your relationship is like. Seriously.

There are other ways to support you instead of reading your writing:

Reviewing your books.

Sharing your book related posts.

Attending writing events with you.

Giving opinions on your cover.

Helping you pick your author photo. (Or taking it, in my case)

Holding your hand while you hit 'send' on a query or 'publish book' on Amazon.

Recommending your book to people.

Buying books for you.

Pushing you to keep going despite setbacks or rejection.

However, if your partner is critiquing unfairly, belittling or humiliating you, that is a different matter. That is not a healthy kind of support.

That's it for this week, see you next week!