our intrepid heroine – of words & books

I feel like I’m imitating Hollywood (blegh!) and just doing post sequels. What have I become?!

It’s been out for a few months now but let’s properly introduce it. Ah-hem. I’d like you to meet the new front cover of Our Intrepid Heroine:

It’s back! It has a new front cover! It’s been edited! It’s as short as ever! And I didn’t: a) do the editing or b) do the front cover design and yes, I call that an absolute win.

There was an old front cover. There was an old front cover making process. But that’s in the distant past now. I call this a glow up. A follow up post six years later.

I wasn’t sure what the heck this book needed but it needed an upgrade. It didn’t need to look like a unicorn genocide had taken place in a post-apocalyptic world. It needed to have colour. It needed to have panache! Style! I didn’t need to be languishing over AHHH THE UNICORN DOESN’T HAVE A HORN or DANG IT! I LEFT THE TELEGRAPH POLES IN THERE!

So I showed Monkey & Whale Designs all my favourite book covers. I drew a very bad sketch of what a new front cover might look like (‘stained glass’ I announced with considerable authority) … and voilà.

Things started happening. and friends, comrades, fellow air-breathers … we have come a long way from:

These are the facts: Our Intrepid Heroine has a unicorn following her about, she can’t pronounce ‘felicitations’, and she’s on her way to slay a dragon. A dragon that has killed an entire flock of her father’s sheep, three goats and one pig. And a frog.
Our Heroine has a sword named ‘Death’ and a spear called ‘Doom’. She is afflicted by the presence of pesky princesses, mysterious Hooded Persons, and noble knights.
Narrated by a Narrator who is fond of detours and digressions, this is a short novella with tongue-in-cheek humour and Very Important Tips in hunting dragons that will be sure to stir the curiosity of the eager amateur dragon-hunter.

BOOK CREDITS:

*orchestral music plays*

Edited by: Deborah O’Carroll

Written by: Me. In 2014. At the Beginning of Everything.

Available: Here

ness writes about writing

I am rather stuck … [Editing Block]

July 27, 2015July 27, 2015 nesskingsley

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/66/18/c6/6618c69d95e0149af7fb870916351487.jpg — via Pinterest

Our Intrepid Heroine 2 has stalled. It’s written, all right. It’s even got a smashing front cover and a title with which I’m quite pleased.

However, every time I sit down to wrestle with it … nothing. Zero. Nada. You know when you put two magnets together, but turn one so that they repel each other? Yeah. It’s like that. Somehow, I simply can’t do it. And it’s affecting all of my writing. Because I’m not writing.

Which, for someone with vast dreams of ~~world domination~~ writerly success, is a wittle problem.

So, as with every problem, there is a solution. Mine? I’m moving Our Intrepid Heroine the Second’s Publication Aiming Date to September. And then I’m writing my trilogy and other projects because I am rather sick of producing nothing, nothing at all.

I’m rather disappointed that I can’t share OIH2 with you just yet. But it will be coming. Eventually. In the mean time, in another world I’ve got some dragons to slay and a marriage between a renegade and a willful young woman to arrange.

Whoever said that writing was boring?

While I usually attempt to post once a week, last week’s posting didn’t happen. Therefore, another post might pop up later this week to make up for it.

ness talks about life, ness writes about writing

A Letter Regarding Text Butchery and Milestones

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015 nesskingsley

He’d build her a bigger house, our Intrepid Heroine decided. Or at least he ought to. One had to be fair when burning one’s subjects’ homes down.

– Our Intrepid Heroine the Second

Dear Peoples,

Our Intrepid Heroine the Second has officially reached the First Draft Milestone. In a colossal push that surprised even me, the words piled up and up and up until the final word was written.

It is more than double the length of the first book. I have a Proper Title prepared for it, and several bouts of Text Butchery awaiting it.

Ah yes, Text Butchery. Something that alternatively makes me a little terrified or a little excited. Remember when I wrote about my astounding find wayy back in the January of last year? Yes. I’m going to have to take my own advice.

It would be easier to roll over and read a book (which is a thing that I have never done. Ever. *guilty cough*) and pretend that someone else is doing all the hefty work of forming my ball of wordy clay into a cozy coherent kettle. But alas, I am not permitted to dwell in the Land of Delusion (as much as I would wish to) and so I must press on, editing one sentence, one paragraph at a time.

I didn’t post last week as I was away, spewing words onto a blank sheet and brainwashing folk with Alistair Macleans [result: highly successful].

Anyhow, I’m giving myself a pat on the back and a gloomy look in the mirror. The pat because I finished a First Draft, the gloomy look because there is still further to go.

Cups of tea and other lovely things,

Ness

As a side note, I have been interviewed on the Homeschooled Authors blog. Click here to have a peek at it, if you wish to.