Daily writing schedule, 2018 edition

So I’ve decided to change up my daily writing schedule in 2018. Normally, I work on one project/novel/screenplay at a time, taking it through three drafts, then story edit, then another draft and polishing pass, then content/line edit, then final read through, then proofreaders, and then the book is released. Meaning that after I write the first draft, I don’t really write any ‘new’ words until the story is with the editor (I add a ton of words, and move them around, but I’m still working within the same main story). So this often results in me struggling to get back into the habit of daily writing when a book is being released – at a time that I often feel a bit tired (if not actually a little burned out).

So! For 2018, I’ve decided to try something new. I’ll write two thousand words a day, every morning, five days a week. And in the afternoon, I’ll work on the 2nd/3rd drafts or edits of the novel that is next to be released. Setting Saturdays aside for audiobook recording.

So this will likely mean that the period of time between Dowser 7 and Dowser 8 releasing will be slightly longer than normal, but it should also mean that Dowser 8.5 and Dowser 9 actually release quicker. If all goes as planned and I can actually write two novels at once (that does remain to be seen).

Anyway, this is long way of saying – YAY! I get to start writing Dowser 8.5 today, as well as the second draft of Dowser 8 this afternoon.

A pile of Kleenex is all that marks the final words of the first draft of Dowser 8. Let the second draft commence!

Oh, FYI. I seriously hope the test prints of the new T-shirt designs from Dowser 7 arrive at Elizabeth’s this week. But they still haven’t shipped. Yes, the ones I ordered on January 12. 🙁 Fingers crossed! I’ll do a couple of giveaways when they’ve been approved! And hopefully Elizabeth will take some modelling shots. 🙂 I will also write up a post about getting a good fit (using your chest measurement, not the size printed on the T-shirt) and how international readers can get their hands on the designs (since the T-shirts themselves still only ship to US addresses).

Dowser 7: paperback giveaway scavenger hunt

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED.

  1. Blog – 74 comments – random number: 17 = Melissa
  2. Facebook – 86 comments – random number: 85 = Venetia
  3. Instagram – 60 comments – random number: 5 = Christina

Okay! I promised I’d post a paperback giveaway on Tuesday, and then I didn’t. So … since it is now Friday, I thought I’d post THREE chances to win an autographed paperback of Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7) to make up for my tardiness.

And, to make it even more fun, I’ve scattered the paperbacks about like a scavenger hunt.

There are three steps to play along.

First, comment below on this blog post to enter to win this beauty (paperback #1):

A lovely reader, Billie, made me this tatted dragon!! Isn’t it gorgeous? [But it’s not part of the giveaway].
Second, head over to my Facebook page, then find and comment on photo #2 to enter to win that paperback.

And third, pop over to my Instagram feed, find and comment on photo #3 to enter to win the final paperback!

Fun! Fun!!

Likes and shares are always welcomed and appreciated.

Notes/Rules: OPEN INTERNATIONALLY. One entry per person (on all three platforms). One winner will be selected by random number generator (on each platform). Email addresses are not collected for any purpose other than to contact the winner. No purchase necessary.

Giveaway closes SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2018 at midnight PST.

Are you new to the Adept Universe? Book one is Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1).

Click here for the reading order of the Adept Universe.

Ah, the muse …

I’ve been working through the first half of Dowser 8 for the last couple of weeks, having gotten derailed writing the first draft by editing Dowser 7, the holidays, and the rather lengthy to-do list that comes with releasing a book. I’ve been only getting 600-800 newish words a day. But the idea is that these ‘easy’ second draft words were supposed to ease me back into the writing.

But the muse is a funny thing … I can write without it, without the words and ideas flowing, but it feels heartless and ungrounded. Eventually the idea that the story will never flow again starts to take hold and erode my sense of how the writing is supposed to be. Yes, there are often a few tough days in a row that I need to weather, but I’ve just gone through the longest period of feeling like I had nothing in my head that I’ve ever experienced. Dowser 8, Dowser 9, Necromancer 1 are all plotted out, with detailed outlines, and before I hit this drought I was also working on a brand new series that will launch this fall.

But, even with all that story worked out, nothing was flowing.

And between you and me (and poor Michael who was probably getting tired of me yammering on about being in a weird ‘nothing’ headspace), it was starting to freak me out. I needed NEW words, not just rewritten ones. I desperately needed the muse to visit.

So, yesterday I reached the end of what I had written for the first draft of Dowser 8. I wasn’t exactly staring at a blank page (I rarely do because I outline) but I was daunted. So I complained a bit on social media. I fussed around. Yadda, yadda.

Then I wrote. I told myself all I needed was 2000 words. I reminded myself that they didn’t need to be brilliant, because there are many, many stages to writing a novel (at least 5 to 6 drafts on my part alone, not including all the work the editor does) and I just needed words to get me through to the third act – aka the ending that I’ve been running in my head for over a year now.

So I got 2400 words. This number is in no way brilliant in and of itself, and should be easily achievable. But it hasn’t been. And I yet managed it. Satisfied with that solid day, I put the chickies to bed and started a new knitting project.

And this morning?

The muse came rolling back, specifically while I was cleaning out the litter box. But hey, I’m not complaining!

Taking a little tidbit from the new scene I wrote yesterday (a scene I thought was pretty throw away at the time), the muse dropped a bloody, dark deed on me – an idea that expanded a beat set up in Dowser 7 and Dowser 8 but was actually more fully exploitable in one of the short stories that I’ve been muttering about possibly writing.

And the muse wasn’t done, because in order to share this new deviously dark idea with Michael, I needed to explain how it came about and where it fit. And in doing so, I realized that the two short stories were actually two parts of a novella (if not a novel) that fits between Dowser 8 and Dowser 9. And that’s not all … it’s actually THREE parts, not just the two shorts I’ve been toying with writing.

So there you go. You may now make chocolate sacrifices to the muse, she’s just given you Dowser 8.5.

But!

Here’s the twist.

It’s not a Jade book.

Oh, no. *insert evil grin*

It’s Mory, Rochelle, and Jasmine’s tales. All outlined and interconnected, thanks to the muse this very morning.

I will now have a hot chocolate in celebration.

The muse is back and she’s full of wicked ideas!

Dowser 8: the ‘girls’ go hunting

Jasmine glanced between us. “You two are a little crazy, you know.”

Kandy shrugged. “You’ll get it, baby girl. When you’re all grown up and never meet your match.”

Jasmine twisted her lips wryly, tugging her phone of out her jacket pocket. “I’ve already met him.”

Kandy laughed huskily, shaking her head. “The nearly immortal are more vulnerable than us three, darling. They’ve forgotten they can die. And it’s the possibility of death than keeps us sharp.” Kandy tapped on her temple.

Jasmine raised one eyebrow at the green-haired werewolf, texting without looking at her screen. “Thanks for the life lesson, wolf.”

Kandy snapped her teeth. “You can owe it to me, vampire.”

I laughed. “Shall we continue?”

– Dowser 8, first draft [unedited and unproofed]

Click here for the reading order of the Adept Universe.

Dowser 8 to be released late-spring 2018.

 

Dowser 7: early reviews

Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7) has been officially released for a week today. Yay! And many of my lovely readers have lovely things to say about the newest Jade book, so I thought I’d share a few snippets here:

A solid 5 star series – Outstanding plot continues and gets richer and more exciting with each book. Similar to the other books in series, you won’t want to stop reading until you’re forced to because you have reached the end. –  Liz via Amazon USA

More, more more – I just want to keep reading and never stop! – Randi via Amazon USA

Brilliant as always – Love this series. It incorporates magical beings with sass and superpowers within the modern world. With a cupcake or two thrown in. – Inka via Amazon UK

Left me wanting more – As usual this was a smart, sassy and engaging book that I couldn’t put down. I love the interplay between the characters and how Meghan weaves the different series in the Adept Universe together. – Carmen via Amazon CANADA

5 stars – I love how these characters are so well rounded – it was a real pleasure to join them on another adventure! …and the cupcakes! – Maggie via Kobo

5 stars – If you are a fan of snark, cupcakes, and kick a$$ strong female characters then this book is a must!!! – Shawna via Goodreads

Thank you so, so much for reading and reviewing. I’ve yammered on about this before, but supporting any author – indie or traditionally published – in the first 30 days of a book release is not only great for the author but it also does all sorts of the good things behind the scenes, such as ‘juicing’ algorithms on retailers, getting titles on best-seller or hot new release lists, etc. All of which calls attention to the book. So, thank you, thank you!

Now back to writing Dowser 8 …

[No release date yet, for anyone who was about to ask. 😉 ]

Dowser 7: paperback proof

I thought I’d share some pretty photos of the paperback proof for Dowser 7 that showed up in the mail this morning:

Paperback cover design by Elizabeth Mackey Design.

Interior file formatting by 52 Novels.

For those of you who are holding out for the paperback version of Dowser 7, it should be available on Amazon soon and on all other retailers within a week. Yay!

Dowser 7: chapter one, part two

Click here to read chapter one, part one first.

Continued …

“Nine minutes,” Kandy said.

I jutted my chin out. “This isn’t the right spot.”

The werewolf bared her teeth. “It’s exactly the right spot, dowser.”

Belligerently, I took two wide steps to my left. I might have been only half-witch, but I could still feel the slumbering current of magic that I was about to try to tap into underneath my feet.

Kandy narrowed her eyes at my position adjustment, but she didn’t comment.

“We could have at least set up distraction spells.” I gestured around the empty park. “People jog at night around here. Chalking runes on the seawall is going to look weird, even in Vancouver.”

“You know that any other spells might interfere with the casting of the grid.” Kandy’s tone was unusually cajoling. She was babying me in response to the baby I was being.

I exhaled harshly. No matter my previous bravado and declaration of might, in truth, I was worried that I was going to ruin the intricate spell that my grandmother and Kandy had spent six months planning and constructing. Twelve witches — most of whom had flown into the city for the occasion — were currently set up all around the borders of Vancouver, waiting for the stroke of midnight. Because together, we were going to attempt to raise a magically triggered boundary around the city.

In its primary phase, the grid would help the witches track magic users within a wide area — from the north edge of the Lions Gate Bridge to the property that Rochelle, the oracle, owned in Southlands; from the western edge of the University of BC to three eastern points along Boundary Road, the border between Vancouver and Burnaby. And if that initial grid held and functioned properly, the witches had plans to expand the coverage to include all of Greater Vancouver — aka all of the territory held and regulated by the Godfrey coven.

“Eight minutes.”

“Screw you, werewolf.”

“Any time, any place, dowser.”

I laughed. Kandy flashed her teeth at me.

“Fine. I’ll give it a go.” I glanced down at the runes carefully printed on the paper Kandy had given me, wishing I had more light and that the paper wasn’t so crumpled. “Why is it all wrinkled? It looks like someone balled it up and threw it away.”

Kandy shrugged.

All right, then.

I hunched down to chalk the first rune, copying it as precisely as I could from the paper onto the concrete. It looked a little like a —

Kandy cleared her throat expectantly.

I cursed under my breath. “What? Do you have a freaking checklist?”

“Hand them over, Jade.”

“You know it doesn’t matter if I’m wearing them, right? They are me.”

“Illuminating.”

“You know what I mean. What if I told you that you were going to have to take off the cuffs?”

“I refer you to the T-shirt,” Kandy said, her tone deceptively mild. She was pointing at her chest, where the words I do bite were emblazoned in thick black lettering on orange cotton. The aforementioned cuffs — gold, rune carved, and three inches across — adorned her wrists, creating a perpetual aesthetic conflict with her sporty outfits.

CHAMPAGNE, MISFITS, AND OTHER SHADY MAGIC (DOWSER 7)

COMING JANUARY 18, 2018

PREORDER NOW

AMAZONiBOOKSKOBOBARNES & NOBLESMASHWORDS

 

New to the Adept Universe? Find the reading order here.

Dowser 7: chapter one, part one

The green-haired werewolf handed me a broken stick of bright-pink chalk, fishing a crumpled wad of paper out of her backpack and halfheartedly smoothing it out on her blue-Lycra-clad thigh. The fake leather backpack was dyed bright purple and adorned with puffy leather spikes, mimicking some sort of dinosaur. It clashed spectacularly with the lithe werewolf’s deep-green-dyed hair and orange T-shirt.

I had needled Kandy about the backpack when she’d shown up wearing it, just before she dragged me from the comfort of my apartment fifteen minutes before midnight, forcing me to jog to one of the many parks along Kitsilano Beach. But needing to deflect the tension I was feeling over the spell I had been asked to cast, I couldn’t resist teasing her again.

“So … did you lose a bet? Or what?”

Once again, Kandy refused to engage on the backpack topic. Instead, she offered me a deeply disapproving glower and the still-wrinkled piece of paper. Of course, I might have been reading the judgement into the look.

I glanced at the carefully printed design, noting the handwriting of both my grandmother, Pearl, and my mother, Scarlett. Apparently, I was now expected to chalk the ornate circle they had scribed on paper onto the seawall. At exactly midnight. With only a smoke-shrouded sliver of a moon overhead for light.

“Runes?” I moaned dejectedly. “I thought it was just supposed to be a simple circle. And, like, just standing here.”

Kandy shrugged her backpack-laden shoulder. “The witches decided you might need some help. You know, focusing.”

I eyed her snottily. “I’m one of the most powerful Adepts in North America. A renowned dowser and skilled alchemist. I can tear down wards with my bare hands!”

“And you bake the tastiest cupcakes,” Kandy said mildly. Then she glanced at her phone. “You’ve got ten minutes.”

Still grumbling under my breath about my magical prowess, I surveyed the well-worn concrete path under my feet. Then I glanced to either side of the seawall running along the edge of Kits Beach Park. The Maritime Museum was just a short distance away, but this part of the seaside park was pretty much just a wide stretch of trimmed, mostly brown grass. So other than a large-leafed chestnut tree to our left, we were standing out in the open.

The eclectic mix of homes across the swath of grass behind Kandy were mostly dark, though I could see that someone was watching TV in the uppermost window of a Spanish-villa-inspired converted triplex on the eastern corner.

Those houses along Ogden Avenue rarely came on the market, as teardowns or otherwise. Hence the mixture of architecture. Practically every decade since Vancouver had been established was represented in this one residential block, from the fairly modern sandstone-clad mansion on the western corner, to the untouched Cape Cod. Across from where I was supposed to be chalking a rune-marked witches’ circle, a recently painted Craftsman stood, which I vaguely remembered was one of Godfrey Properties’ long-term rentals.

So yeah, I was dithering. Over architecture.

CHAMPAGNE, MISFITS, AND OTHER SHADY MAGIC (DOWSER 7)

COMING JANUARY 18, 2018

PREORDER NOW

AMAZONiBOOKSKOBOBARNES & NOBLESMASHWORDS

 

New to the Adept Universe? Find the reading order here.

Click here to read chapter one, part two.

Cupcakes mentioned in Dowser 7

Champagne, Misfits, and Other Shady Magic (Dowser 7) features Jade back in her baking groove in Vancouver. Since readers last saw her (in Reconstructionist 1) she has created seven new cupcakes, and I’ve been sharing some of those recipes in my last few monthly newsletters. I will update the Dowser Cookbook to include those new recipes, and re-release the free PDF ‘aka the third edition’ to my new release email list on January 18, 2018.

But! I know that some of you like to bake cupcakes on or around release day (I normally do as well) and since there are numerous cupcakes mentioned in Dowser 7 – twenty-four!! – I thought I’d share the entire list ahead of time.

Appearing in Dowser 7: peanut butter cake, fudge cake, honey buttercream, chocolate buttercream, and peanut butter icing.

Cupcakes marked with an asterisk (*) appear in the Dowser Cookbook. Cupcakes with double asterisks (**) have been released in my newsletter and will be added to the cookbook for release day.

In order of appearance:

  1. Elation in a Cup** – peanut butter cake with chocolate buttercream
  2. Delirium in a Cup** – chocolate peanut butter cake and chocolate peanut butter icing
  3. Clarity in a Cup* – apple spice cake with honey buttercream
  4. Happiness in a Cup** – peanut butter cake and honey buttercream
  5. Enchantment in a Cup – chocolate peanut butter cake with peanut butter icing
  6. Glee in a Cup** – peanut butter cake with peanut butter icing
  7. Exultation in a Cup – chocolate peanut butter cake with dark chocolate buttercream
  8. Wonder in a Cup – white cake with dark chocolate buttercream
  9. Lust in a Cup* – dark chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese icing
  10. Charm in a Cup* – citrus yellow cake with strawberry buttercream
  11. Hug in a Cup* – dark chocolate cake with buttercream
  12. Buzz in a Cup* – mocha fudge cake with mocha buttercream
  13. Comfort in a Cup* – banana cake with buttercream
  14. Cozy in a Cup* – chocolate chip banana cake and dark chocolate buttercream
  15. Serenity in a Cup* – carrot cake with cream cheese icing
  16. Bliss in a Cup** – fudge cake with peanut butter icing
  17. Tart in a Cup – blackberry cake with blackberry buttercream
  18. Vixen in a Cup* – chocolate gingerbread cake with salted caramel buttercream
  19. Love in a Cup* – dark chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream
  20. Sass in a Cup* – chocolate blackberry cake with chocolate blackberry buttercream
  21. Flirt in a Cup – blackberry cake with chocolate blackberry buttercream
  22. Harmony in a Cup – white cake with cherry buttercream
  23. Sex in a Cup* – cinnamon chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream
  24. Ecstasy in a Cup – double chocolate cake with lemon buttercream

I think I’ll either bake Cozy in a Cup or Serenity in a Cup. Join me live on Facebook at 4pm PST January 18 to find out which cupcake I decided to bake!! And seriously, between you and me, getting through chapter five of Dowser 7 without cupcakes is going to be difficult!

Will you be indulging in any treats and/or cupcakes while reading Dowser 7? If you do, and you enjoying sharing photos, please tag me in your social media posts!! I’d love to see what you’ve baked/chosen.

Tags: Facebook/Instagram: @meghancianadoidge Twitter: @mcdoidge

Possible hashtags:  #dowserseries #cakeinacup #[cupcake name]inacup #amreading #dowser7

GETTING EXCITED!