Sara King

In the last 6 months, I’ve gotten 5 books published and for sale on Amazon (Outer Bounds: Fortune’s Rising, Terms of Mercy: To the Princess Bound, Millennium Potion: Wings of Retribution, Guardians of the First Realm: Alaskan Fire and Alaskan Fury), plus wrote a smut that nobody will ever know about because I published it under a pseudonym (cough).

Summer, as usual, has sucked for the amount of writing I’ve been able to get done. I am constantly finding myself choosing between, say, sitting in a cold, dark room hacking away at my keyboard while my legs hurt, or running off in the glorious Midnight Sun with XXXX family member who called at the spur-of-the-moment to go look for agates at the beach on their off-day. Argh! I’ve been trying to put my foot down lately, but it’s hard.

Because romance has been paying the bills, my tentative plan is to write 5 more romances before December 31st, some in the Alaskan Paranormal world, some in the Terms of Mercy world, and maybe a couple stand-alones. Then it’s back to the sci-fi… Hopefully, soon, I shall be able to find the time to polish up the After Earth sci-fi series and Form and Function fantasy series. Oh, and then there’s Earthseeker and the Anfyn Glen… /lesigh Too many projects.

-Sara King
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kingfiction
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

So, in the last six months of completely ignoring my blog, David and I have managed to get 3 novels published and for sale on Kindle:

Alaskan Fire – http://www.amazon.com/Alaskan-Guardians-First-Realm-ebook/dp/B0073WZ01C/
Alaskan Fury – http://www.amazon.com/Alaskan-Guardians-First-Realm-ebook/dp/B007P4CY26/
Millennium Potion: Wings of Retribution – http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Retribution-Millennium-Potion-ebook/dp/B007W6RBSE/

So far, 2012 is going VERY well, writing-wise. 4 months in and I’ve done 2 Alaskan Paranormals and have a third, Alaskan Fang, about halfway finished (and a few thousand screaming fans demanding I finish it, lol!!), PLUS I just finished getting Millennium Potion ready for publication, and am now working my magic on my first true romance, To the Princess Bound. Oh, and did I mention I spent a few weeks on networking and advertising, and answering emails and reader questions about when the next book was going to be published? I’m going as fast as I can, my minions. Thank you SO MUCH for hanging in there with me!

After I get TtPB polished and ready for Kindle, I’ll be going back to Alaskan Fang (with brainstorming help this time, because I fizzled out about halfway through without a benevolent genius to keep me from sputtering out and doing something stupid), getting Fang finished and out, then it’s looking like I’ll be compiling a book of series-related short-stories that expand on the characters that all of you have gotten to know and love (which will also help more people find and love those same stories). From there, I’ll be hitting up the Earthseeker, Outer Bounds, After Earth, Form and Function, and Daytona Dae series. There’s so much to do and so many stories to write… I really need clones!

Stay tuned! More novels will be hitting Amazon approximately every six weeks.

-Sara King
www.facebook.com/kingfiction
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

Interesting Factoid:

On every major book I’ve written (read: every good one), there’s been a little switch that eventually trips in my head, where sleep no longer becomes an issue for me. Sometimes that switch trips on the first couple chapters, as with the After Earth series, or, as with Alaskan Fire, which was 1/2 of the way written before I once again picked it up (and ze switch hadn’t flipped back then, either), it wasn’t until about 105,000 words that everything kind of went BAM and a required 8.5-9 hours of sleep suddenly became 5 1/2.

Accompanying this switch flipping, I tend to have really complex and interesting dreams, like (for instance) the dream in which I was writing in front of two screens, one of which had the words and sentences as I wrote them (and yes, I understand the words perfectly–but since when did I use COURIER to write?!?!) and the other screen having the scene as it played out, movie-style. When something happened in the move that Sara didn’t like, Sara deleted a few paragraphs and the whole thing rewound, then she started again. That particular one was about gargoyles surviving in a major city. Interesting, but I don’t really have much experience in a major city, so I never did anything with it.

Also accompanying the switch-flipping is a distinct lack of need to eat. Oh, and the fact that if I spend much time doing ANYTHING but write the book, I totally fall into a huge depression spiral that ends in a minor nuclear meltdown. On the other hand, however, it almost feels like my brain got upgraded, and I can think of dialogue, action, and exposition without actually thinking about it. Just goes straight from the ether to the page, and I have fun reading it later. My ability to concentrate kind of amplifies, about the a dozen times the power of caffeine. The world becomes a super-sharp buzz, and there’s almost a ringing in my ears (hell, who’s kidding, my ears are humming right now). So, uh, yeah. Not sure if that’s a lack of sleep talking, but I find it interesting.

Current update: Am 123,866 words into Alaskan Fire. Am putting the finishing touches on the last major fight scene, after which there will be some wrap-up scenes, and then I gotta go back to the middle and massage it into submission. Forcasted ending is about 140k words, but I’m not opposed to going over.

-Sara King
www.kingfiction.com
kingnovel(at]gmail.com
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

Well, after brain-frying on Millennium Potion Book 2 for about 4 days and getting approximately 250 words on it in total, I switched gears and started work on finishing Alaskan Fire. And with just a tiny bit of tinkering, it is SO much better. I’m already at 96,908 words after (3? Gawd, time flies by when I’m working…) days of cutting/editing/writing. (Started with 84k, cut about 10k of that, then added 22k). In short, my Muse was telling me to screw off, it wanted to work on something else. Then the little bastard happily pulled up a seat beside me as I INSISTED on working on Millennium Potion Book 2 and idly cleaned his fingernails in between pointing and laughing. So I finally gave in to the nagging desire to write Alaskan Fire on Friday and ze little prick put his grooming kit away and crawled back up onto my shoulder. Took enormous restraint not to flick him off. The flighty, irresponsible little bastard is totally messing with The Plan.

So yes, my current project is figuring out how to get a misanthropic wereverine and a Woman of Unusual Size to kick ass against an army of sexually deprived werewolves. I’ve almost put the ending on it. (Another 15k words, it’s looking like). After that, I need to throw about 10-20k into the mid-beginning to increase tension and introduce the very real possibility of failure. Then I shall be sending THAT out to some first-readers, to see what y’all think.

If all goes well (and my flighty little curmudgeon doesn’t decide to screw off entirely), Alaskan Fire shall be published in electronic format in December or January. Will keep you updated on that development as our community-based epublisher gets closer to launch.

-Sara King
www.kingfiction.com
kingnovel@gmail.com
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

All righty, folks. Here’s the deal. I just spent an hour scanning through my mailing-list trying to find people whom I knew to be good first-readers, the names going fuzzier and fuzzier in my head as time went on. So I finally just grabbed those I could readily recognize and then hit Send. The final version of Millennium Potion should be in your inboxes now, if you were on The List. If I missed you, it’s because my brain was about to explode, not because you are somehow inadequate. Email me and I will rectify the situation.

Now, because my head feels like it’s been run through a cheese shredder, I’m off to take a walk. Should be starting Millennium Potion Book 2 here in the next day or two, brainstormers willing.

-Sara King
www.kingfiction.com
email: kingnovel [at} gmail :dot: com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1328478709
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

Okay, whoops, sorry for this, but I still have about 38 pages left to edit. Yesterday was not as fruitful as I had hoped. Total wordcount: 147,076. That’s 39k added since beginning the work. (There was a lot of writing involved in the last couple days, which slowed ze edit immensely.)

So yes, I didn’t meet my deadline. Save ze spoons. I’m still working on it…

-Sara King
www.kingfiction.com
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08

…And 237 pgs out of 290 of the Millennium Potion edit. I’ve added 35k new words (the novel was only 108k words to start the edit), bringing the total wordcount to 143,005. I’ve rearranged most paragraphs and added detail and emphasis, but I am finding that my bare-bones slap-it-to-the-page-and-keep-going style is very easy to work with… Just as long as you don’t try to change anything.

Very early on, I learned changing = bad. You know what the Butterfly Effect is? Well, because the ENTIRE story is Butterfly Effect (rather than carefully-plotted outlines with cleverly crafted climaxes and diverging storylines), I literally change ONE thing, and the entire story goes wonky and I have to change EVERYTHING after it. And, what is worse, the more determined I get to change something and the deeper I go into ‘fixing’ that point, the more EVERYTHING ELSE gets thrown COMPLETELY OFF, until the story is no longer taking place in the same bar, or on the same ship, oh, and by the way, that character’s got the wrong name, and this one over here is dead, and the universe just imploded. Wait. Novel? What novel? I thought you were writing a short story. Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. Well, that sucks. You need a beer? And when are we getting more cakemix? You KNOW I am totally useless without cakemix…

So, instead of changing stuff (i.e., taking anything out), I am adding stuff (but careful not to add anything important…), and that 35k words has totally enriched the experience of the novel 10-fold even though nothing has changed. Please tell me that makes sense, because my brain hurts.

I should be starting Millennium Potion Book 2 on the 8th. Tomorrow night, I will be sending out emails to some first-readers, to see if they’re interested in reading the edit. If you are on the first-reader list, be praised, for you have proven your awesomeness through exquisitely good taste. If you feel that you SHOULD have been on the first-reader list and your pet author is a total turdy butthead for not sending you an email invitation, feel free to rant at me in a note entitled TURDY BUTTHEAD AUTHOR BEWARE OF SPOON! That should get my attention.

-Sara King
www.kingfiction.com
Proud Graduate of Odyssey ’08