Sep 3, 2022
So jazzed about Leicester pride today! Sold 10 books, need to order some more from my publisher as I’ll be at Birmingham pride on the 24th! (U.K. pride isn’t limited to one month…)
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So jazzed about Leicester pride today! Sold 10 books, need to order some more from my publisher as I’ll be at Birmingham pride on the 24th! (U.K. pride isn’t limited to one month…)
Isiah the willing
Hey there! I’m doing a reading from my upcoming book The Willing, a romance about a girl who can bring people back from the dead, and the girl who’s being followed by a ghost! I’d love it so much if anyone could join me, feel free to ask questions ^_^
https://bit.ly/BSBPreviewFeb2022
@red--thedragon this is the one you helped me with most recently!!
January 29th 2022 | BSB Preview * February 2022 Releases Bold Strokes Books authors read from and discuss their upcoming releases ·
I'm promoting my new book, The Willing, at SCLHO in May if anyone's in the south of England at that time!
Aaaaaahhhhhhh The Willing has been accepted for publication next year!!!
My first book, Not Broken, will be out in March - my second, The Willing, has just been accepted by Bold Strokes Books and is due to come out in Feb 2022! I’m so freaking excited... can I call myself a professional author now??
I had an upsetting moment this week where I thought that I was going to have to change all 27 thousand words of The Willing to come from Kitty’s point of view instead of Talia’s! Again!!
The Willing has gone through an infuriating number of changes since I finished the first handwritten draft. I always expect to change genders, names and backstories to a certain extent, but I’ve re-written this story at least five times now.
First I realised that there was a major plot point that just did NOT make sense and made one of the characters quite unlikeable, so I had to revisit a load of characters’ motivations. I then discussed the structure with Aloïs quite a bit and they suggested that Kitty’s character isn’t dynamic enough to be the main character, whereas Talia, who dies and comes back to life, definitely has a fish-out-of-water appeal. Initially I started writing BOTH girls’ points of view in the past tense, but then allowed myself to be talked into writing in present tense, which is a bit out of my comfort zone. I’m glad I did, because it just gives it an immediacy that suits the story. Which then made me think keeping the POV limited to just one person would be better. Soooo I ended up with the third draft!
The trouble is, Talia’s story may be more interesting at the start, but the end of the story is all Kitty’s. She’s the one who has to face a possible conspiracy and her own tragic past. Talia has to tackle her abandonment issues and learn to open up, and that’s important, but it just feels silly to have this entire magic system seen only from the outside, and not through Kitty’s eyes.
It soon became clear that I was going to have to go back to an older draft, but I’ve really become attached to first person present. My problem was that I wasn’t sure how ‘acceptable’ it would be to write alternating POVs in first person! I know that such things are very reliant on fashion – it used to be really common to have books written in third person omniscient in the early 20th century, while now I just can’t imagine that working – the POV jumps around too much, even within a paragraph.
I’m happy to say that my friends on a writing discord group make excellent cheerleaders, and encouraged me to write it the way I wanted (different chapters alternating POVs, both in first person present) as long as I make it clear who’s thinking. I recently wrote a Cyrano fic (pretentious? Me? Never!) with alternating POVs in the first person, and I’m actually more proud of that piece of writing than anything else I’ve done recently.
As Tay told me, “Don’t limit yourself because of ‘shoulds’ and ‘can’ts'”. So I’m going to be brave! I’m going to write as pretentiously as I like, hell, if middle aged straight white men can do it and be lauded, I’m gonna go for it too!
I’m writing their accents too. That’s even more terrifying…