My 2024 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As promised, here are my goals for 2024!

Write three books.

I would like to write the first drafts of the following books in 2024:

Original Elementals #8: Turf

Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations

Original Elementals #9: Arcturus

Publish two books.

I’m planning on publising Celestial Plague #4: Hell in April and Curse of Anubis #1 in October.

Re-name the Curse of Anubis books.

While I do like the names they currently have, I think I can do better. I’ve been looking at shorter, snappier titles and also longer ones. I don’t want to publish them with the titles they currently have.

Get two covers deisgned.

The first two books in the Curse of Anubis series will have covers by the end of the year. They will be designed by Deranged Doctor Design, as always.

Self-edit two books in the Curse of Anubis series.

I think I’ve been too hard on myself with self-editing in the past so this time I’m going to cut myself some slack. Editing two books myself is acheivable and I won’t be pushing myself too hard to get it done either.

Finish the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection and make it available to my subscribers.

I’m planning on getting this enovella finished this year and I want to make it available to my newsletter subscribers before October.

Read 100 books.

I love reading and seeing as I blew my goal out of the water last year I thought I would increase it!

Work on my book sales.

I’d love to be able to publish more books, but in order to do that I need to sell more. I’m going to be tweaking a lot of my books descriptions, blurbs and categories to hopefully get more eyes on them. I want to continue publishing in the future and would like to increase the amount of books I’m able to publish in a year.

Create a Patreon.

Even if it’s not ready by the end of the year, I at least want to get started on it. I put it off a lot last year because I was worried that no-one would want to sign up to it. This is still one of my big goals although I’ve tweaked the original vision a bit. It will now be a hub for all things Elemental Dragons, which means that Original Elementals will be published on there first.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I love participating in these events and my writing wouldn’t be where it is without them. I want to participate in all three events again this year and hopefully get some books done in that time!

I’m being a bit kinder to myself this year which is why I’m not setting as many goals as I usually do. I want to try to focus on my mental health a bit more this year. I didn’t realise how hard I was pushing myself until I looked back at my goals from last year. I’m going to slow down a bit but still keep up with my writing.

What are your goals for this year? Let me know in the comments!

PS; don’t forget to check out these awesome book bundles!

Free to Dream (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)

KU Kickstart (All Genre - 1st in Series)

New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

My First Ever Book

Hi all, 

When I was 10 or 11 years old I started writing my first book and managed to finish it in a few months. It was a complete rewrite of my favourite book at the time, Into The Wild. Of course it's a Warriors book! I wrote the book with the same plot and characters, only to include my own character into the mix as well. 

I remember being so proud of it at the time and excitedly showing it to my family. I hand wrote the entire thing and even redrew the cover! My grandfather was the only one to read it through and he shared my excitement even though looking back the book was awful. I was still proud of myself for doing it and it proved that I could write a book if I really wanted to. Of course, it would be almost a decade before I wrote my next book, an original one called Blood and Water. 

The Warriors rewrite wasn't great, as I just moulded the story around my own character. She was a cat who could shoot thunderbolts out of her paws. She was best friends with the main character and helped him with all aspects of the story. Technically it was my first FanFiction too! I think the main character was called Thunderheart but I can't quite remember. 

I did start writing the sequel too, which followed most of the same story as Fire and Ice. I don't think I got around to finishing that one though. I think a wrote a few chapters and made the cover. While most of my family thought it was just silly children's writing, my grandfather was always there to support me. He helped me weave maths into the story so I could learn while I wrote and made it fun. I know he loved the fact that I carried on writing into adulthood and I'm so glad that he got to see three of my books published before he passed. He was probably also glad that he didn't have to read about Warrior Cats anymore! I hope that he's proud of how far I've come with my writing now. 

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

PS; check out this book bundle full of free post-apocalyptic books!

A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas Giveaway

My Favourite Book Formats, Ranked

Hi all, 

I thought it would be fun to rank some book formats and see which one comes out on top for me! I know everyone has their own preferences when reading and now you can see mine. 

5 - Audiobooks

I know a lot of people love having audiobooks as they can read on the go without having to physically look at a book. I've tried them a few times but I always find myself getting distracted or missing key parts of the book. Maybe I just need to find the right narrator and book length. But for now, these are at the bottom of the list for me. 

4 - Oversized books

These books are usually for coffee tables or sprucing up bookshelves. Depending on what kind of books they are, I can love them. Currently my favourite one is about mythology across the world. I like to pick it up occasionally and have a skim through while I'm chilling on the sofa. 

3 - Paperbacks 

I do love a physical book. But, paperbacks aren't my preferred choice. They're great to read without staring at a screen and I have plenty on my shelf. They just don't have it on number one. 

2 - Ebooks

When ebooks first came out I thought I'd never like them. I just didn't think they could be as good as a physical book. Well, I was wrong! A lot of the books I read nowadays are on my Kindle and I absolutely love it. I can take it anywhere and read as much as I want. It makes reading on the go so much easier. 

1 - Hardcovers 

In my eyes, nothing beats a hardcover. The weight is perfect, the smell and the colours always pop on the covers. Although I don't mind dust jackets, I do prefer ones without them. I was so excited when Amazon offered me the opportunity to have my books published in hardcover. I jumped on that option straight away and ordered one of each to decorate my bookshelf with! 

I know that not everyone will agree with my list as we all have different opinions and preferences. But I still think it's great that there are so many different options for reading out there, there is something for everyone. What would be your number one choice? Let me know in the comments. 

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

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas Giveaway

A Giveaway for National Author’s Day

How to Read More Books in a Year

Hi all!

This week I’m going to talk about reading again, mostly tips about how I read so many books in a year. I’ve always been a huge reader ever since I was little and I always found time to read. I did have a period of not reading a few years ago as it felt like it was becoming too much of a chore. But I am now back into it and loving it!

Carry a book with you.

Whether you’re going to work, the shops or just out for a walk, be sure to grab a book before you leave. You might find that you’ll be able to sneak a few minutes of reading time in. Doing this several times a day really adds up.

Read smaller books.

I was struggling with reading most because I was trying to get through 400 page books as fast as I could. I decided to read some shorter books as well just to keep my mind focused and it helped me get through those longer ones too. My mind was more refreshed when it came to tackling the longer ones after reading a smaller one.

DNF books.

If I’m not enjoying a book, I don’t finish it. I don’t see the point in trying to slog my way through a book I’m not enjoying when i could move onto something else. It stops me from getting bored and not wanting to read.

Set a goal.

I join the reading challenger every year on Goodreads and I find that it really helps me. I want to stay on track for my target and it holds me accountable. If I start falling behind, then I know I have to read more to catch up again. This doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s worth a try.

Read during breaks.

When I’m not writing in my breaks at work, I bring a book in. I can get through a book in a few weeks this way and I usually pick one that is my ‘work’ book. Then when I get home I can pick up another book if I want to.

Read multiple books at once.

As I have ‘work’ books, I also have ‘home’ books. This way I can get through books faster and also keep my mind busy with different books. I don’t have separate piles or anything, I just pick up what I feel like reading next.

Kindle.

I’ve found that having a Kindle has greatly increased the amount of books I can get through a year. It’s easy to carry around and download new books on the go. My library is full of books that I need to read! If you don’t have a Kindle or can’t afford one, many phones and laptops have an app that you can download so you can read ebooks.

Read what you want to read.

No matter how many recommendations you get or how many books you buy, read the ones that you want to read first. There isn’t a specific order that you have to read things in. Reading what you want to read also makes it fun, you don’t want it to feel like a chore because then you’ll be less likely to do it.

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

PS; check out these book bundles before they go!

Great Books Giveaway!

From Your Worst Nightmares…

Why I DNF Books

Hi all,

This week I’m going to talk about DNFing books and why I do it. A lot of readers do this with some books, some are never picked up again while others will be picked up in a few month’s time. It’s rare that once I DNF book, I pick it back up again

DNF means ‘did not finish’. A lot of readers will pick up books and end up not finishing them for a variety of reasons. My reasons for DNFing usually are:

Slow start - I like to be hooked in the couple of chapters, other wise I find myself getting bored too quickly.

Unlikable characters - If I don’t like the main character, then chances are I don’t finish reading the book. They don’t have to be perfect, but if they’re so unlikable that I can’t relate to them or feel sorry for them then I don’t continue reading.

Too much description - I’m not a fan of books that have pages and pages of description. If the first few chapters are just the characters getting their appearances explained in detail, then I put the book down and move on.

Uncomfortable events - I don’t like reading about sexual assault in books, so if the scenes get graphic the book immediately goes down and doesn’t get picked up again.

Spelling and grammar errors - I know that not all spelling errors can be caught through several rounds of editing, but some books are filled with them. It’s at this point that I’m taken out of the story and I’m not invested so I just put the book down.

Poorly written female characters - I’ve started so many books that fall into this category. The female characters are just there for the main characters to be gawked at and then saved by. They usually don’t have much of a personality and always get into danger.

I read a lot of books every year, so it’s inevitable that some get DNF’d. I know that some people have probably DNF’d my books as well, but it’s just a thing that happens. Not every book is for everyone and that’s okay. Even if I DNF book, I still rate it on Goodreads. Usually three stars, unless the book really irked me. I don’t think it’s fair to go lower because it isn’t the author’s fault that it wasn’t my cup of tea.

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

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

Great Books Giveaway!

From Your Worst Nightmares…

My Favourite Books in Different Genres

Hi all!

This week I’m going to post about my favourite books in the genres I love reading! I’ve limited myself to one favourite per genre and I’ve excluded all Warriors books because I’ve blogged about them before and long-time readers know I love them. I have a good mix of traditionally published and self-published books here as well.

Fantasy: Ratha’s Creature

I’ve always had a love for big cats so this book shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I devoured this series when I was younger and daydreamed about writing prehistoric big cats because of this book. Ratha is a beautifully flawed character but I loved watching her grow across the series.

Horror: Cujo

This book made me fall in love with the horror genre. I never picked up a horror book before this one because I wasn’t sure if I was going to like them. Reading Cujo get sicker and sicker made it so that I couldn’t put the book down, I was so desperate to find out what happened next.

GameLit: The Carnelian Fox

This was the first GameLit book I ever read, I didn’t even know the genre existed until I came across this book. I’ve always loved Pokémon and this book takes a lot of those elements and puts it into a book: collecting elemental animals, building a team and battling. The series is still ongoing and I can’t wait for the next one.

Sci-Fi: Refuge

This book has an incredible premise and I love the characters in it. The descriptions of how the human race starts to fall are so vivid and I read the first book in one sitting. I still have the rest of the series that I need to read, but I keep putting it off because I don’t want it to end!

Crime: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I never read an Agatha Christie novel before this one and I absolutely loved it! I’m not very good at figuring out who did it but it was a very fun read nonetheless. I’m hoping to read more of her books this year.

Post-Apocalyptic: The Dead Don’t Turn

Although I lost interest with the later books in the series, I really loved the first one. The characters are great and seeing them all trying to deal with a virus in their own way is interesting. Unfortunately the series starts off well but goes off in a direction I wasn’t a fan of.

That’s it for this week! Keep an eye out next week, as you might miss an announcement about a book out for pre-order… See you next week!

PS; don’t forget to check out these dystopian books!

After the End

My Favourite Bookmarks

Hi all!

I use a lot of bookmarks for my paperback books that I really love so I thought I'd share them with you! I discovered these two artists on Twitter and I fell in love with their art and knew I had to buy some of their stuff.

@kanizoart

You may recognise this artist as they illustrated the poster for Glass and Ice. I love their work on animals and knew that I needed some of their bookmarks. I picked the above two as they were the designs I loved the most. The tiger is gorgeous and the tassel colour is perfect to go with it. The fox one was a harder decision as it was between that one and a dragon one! I ultimately went with the fox as I preferred the spacial theme and the tail was what really sold it for me. The bookmarks themselves are a great fit and are pretty sturdy.

@sushiartstudio

I only recently discovered this artist with their Pokémon drawings. Although all of the bookmarks are amazing, I went with the panther as I adore the way its staring through the leaves. The fauna they draw are ones that I personally haven't seen drawn often and I love the fact that they're drawn with big cats. The tiger one was a freebie as the ribbon hole was drilled in the wrong end, but I really like it! The ribbon makes it look like the tiger is playing with it. Mishka prefers these bookmarks as she loves the ribbons, though maybe she also likes the fact that they're big cats. These bookmarks feel really nice and slot into books perfectly. I love the finish on them.

I highly recommend both artists for their work and you can check out their shops here:

kanizo.co.uk

sushiartstudio.com

That's it for this week! Show the artists some love, as they definitely deserve it. See you next week.

PS; check out this boxset bundle. All books are fantasy and free to download in Kindle Unlimited!

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Box Set Kindle Unlimited Promo

I Finally Signed up To Kindle Unlimited

Hi all,

I saw Amazon were offering a free trail of Kindle Unlimited, or KU, when I was looking for books the other day. KU is a subscription service with Amazon where you pay a monthly fee and can download as many ebooks as you want. As long as the author has enrolled their ebook in KU, you can download it for free. I've always put off getting KU as I wasn't sure how good it will be.

Well, I wish I had done it sooner.

There are so many good books on KU and I've downloaded quite a few already! Books that I had read previously have the entire series on KU, so I've been adding them to my library to read later. Already I'm saving myself quite a bit of money for one subscription. When I signed up I was on the fence about keeping it, but now I definitely will.

I know it's going to help me achieve my goal of reading 100 books this year. Thanks to it, I'll probably go over this goal.

Some of the pros I've found so far are:

Its cheaper.

I'm saving a lot of money downloading the books in KU than if I were to outright buy them. This is a lot of help for those who read a lot of books but can't afford to buy every one.

You're still supporting the author.

Even though you're downloading the book for free, you're still supporting the author. For every page you read, the author gets paid. If you stop reading halfway, then they only get paid according to the pages you read. You're still supporting your favourite authors with your subscription!

Variety.

There are a lot of books in KU, with new ones getting added every day. Some people may find that they're downloading more books than they can read.

If you're on the fence with subscribing to KU, I'd take advantage of Amazon's free trail just so you can see what it's like. As long as you cancel before they charge you if it's not for you, you don't have to pay anything.

Also, a little reminder: all of my books are enrolled in KU! So if you do sign up then you'll be able to download all of my books for free.

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

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles! All of the books are in Kindle Unlimited too:

Flights of Fantasy

Dragon Books

Where to Buy Indie Books on a Budget

Hi all!

This week I'm going to show where you can buy indie, also known as self-published, books when you're on a budget! Libraries and charity shops are great for reading books on a budget but I've found that not many are willing to stock self-published books. It's easy to find traditionally published books in libraries and charity shops as people buy and donate them all the time. So, for those of who you who would love to support indie authors without breaking the bank, I'll show you where to find them!

Amazon Deals.

Amazon has loads of books that are on sale every day. They have perma-free books, which are free to download and Kindle Daily Deals. You can find books for £1 and 99p in the daily deals, which I frequent often to look for a good read! Perma-free and daily deals are pretty good for finding a new series, as the first book could be free or heavily discounted. Although Amazon is used a lot by self-published authors, a lot of traditionally published authors discount their books on Amazon as well.

BookBub.

BookBub is a service that sends out daily or weekly emails with deals on new books. You can choose from loads of genres and formats and they will let you know what books you may like. I get daily emails from them on Fantasy, Sci-Fi, YA and Horror books and I've bought loads of books this way. They have a variety of deals, from free to 99p and heavy discounts. You can also choose where you prefer to buy these books as well, including: Amazon, Kobo, Apple Books and Google. If you're not into ebooks then they also offer deals on audio and print books as well.

Hello Books.

I found Hello Books thanks to being a part of a few author groups on Facebook. They're relatively new and work like BookBub. You get weekly emails with books from each genre that you're subscribed to. I've signed up to their Fantasy, Sci-Fi and YA email lists. All of the books offered are free, 99p or heavily discounted. They currently don't have as many genres as BookBub do, but the books that I've bought thanks to them have been enjoyable. If you want a bit of variety, I'd recommend signing up to both BookBub and Hello Books to get a vast array of books that you may never have discovered.

IASFA.

The IASFA specialise in Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. They send out one email a month that contains a bundle of books with a specific theme. The books are then available to download for free during that time period and once the promotion is over they go back to their original price. There's also occasional book bundles that offer loads of books in one bundle for a set price that doesn't break the bank. I've downloaded from many of their bundles and have loved them! I browse through all of the monthly books, despite what the theme may be, just in case I find a book that I never thought I'd enjoy.

I hope that this post is helpful for readers who love to read but are on a budget! I use all of the above and can personally vouch that they are amazing and great for finding deals. That's it for this week, see you next week.

PS; want to discover your next favourite author? Check out the books in these bundles:

Free Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

When the Sun Sets…

My 2022 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As promised - here are my writing goals for 2022!

Write four books.

By the end of the year I want to have written the first drafts for the following books:

Original Elementals #2: Maelstrom

Original Elementals #3: Shadowhunter

One of the standalone books that I have planned

Original Elementals #4: Devouring

Publish two books.

I want to publish Years in April and Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana in October.

Get three covers designed.

Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana and Celestial Plague #2: Heaven will have covers by the end of the year. These have been booked through my usual cover designer, Deranged Doctor Design. I also want to get a cover done for the Years reader magnet to match the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection and Famished.

Self-edit all of the Celestial Plague series.

I want all of the books in the trilogy to be self-edited by the end of the year. They will then go to my editor before coming back to me for the final edit. I'm planning on getting the first two edited by my editor this year and the third one in early 2023.

Write the Years reader magnet.

I've attempted to do this so many times before but found that none of my ideas were working well. I've scrapped this reader magnet so many times and I would like to get it done by about February.

Make two reader magnets available to my newsletter subscribers.

The Years reader magnet will be available first and then Celestial Plague: Seashine. Both of these will be free to download for my newsletter subscribers, as well as my other two reader magnets.

Submit more short stories.

Although I wrote a lot more short stories this year, I only submitted three of them. I would like to submit more to anthologies to expand my publishing portfolio.

The image that will be used for the Years book poster - illustration by chlmerrahh on Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/chimerahh?source=order_page_user_message_inner_link

Read 100 books.

I read 200 last year so I think 100 will be doable. I've got loads of books currently sitting around waiting to be read, so I don't think I'll struggle for reading material!

Grow my mailing list.

I would like to have at least 500 subscribers by the end of 2022. I'm already doing plenty of newsletter swaps and group promotions on StoryOrigin, and would like to grow this further.

Focus on Amazon ads more.

I've really struggled with this in the past as my automatic ads never seem to spit out many targets for me. I'd like to give this another try in 2022, especially since I have more books in my backlist now.

Get my books into more libraries.

My books are currently in a few libraries and I would like to get them into more. I would like to send out emails to libraries that are willing to stock indie books and see if they will take any copies of mine.

Make all of my books available in hardcover.

Now that Amazon are giving authors the choice to publish a hardcover book, I'm making sure that all of my future books will be in hardcover! It's my favourite kind of book, and they look gorgeous on my shelves.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I like participating in these events as I like seeing my word count go up each day. I'll be participating in all three of these events this year!

I think that's everything that I have planned for 2022! Mentally I'm doing much better than I was last year, so I hope some of these goals will be more achievable! What are your plans for 2022? Let me know in the comments. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to start off 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