Category: Book One, AWAKENING
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Halfway There
Exciting news! Today I crossed the halfway point for Alignment’s first draft! The manuscript is currently sitting pretty at around 56,000 words, making my total word count goal for Book II an estimated 112,000 words in length. If you’re scratching your head and wondering just how large of a book…
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Nearing the Halfway Point
This week I managed to hit the 40% mark on Alignment, Book II’s first draft. The halfway point is in sight! On average, I’m writing about 1,000 words a day, give or take, which has helped the progress bar continue to advance at a nice pace. It’s crazy to think…
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2025’s Schedule
Updates and changes are afoot! As you’ve probably noticed, my website has been given another facelift. While it may look rather plain right now, the new look is in preparation to show off the book cover artwork for Awakening once it is finalized. The change also reflects the switch over…
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Is Writing Fantasy Easy?
I recently saw a comment on a writing community post arguing that the majority of its members wrote fantasy because it was the easiest genre to write. Another commenter suggested fantasy doesn’t require as much research as other genres because you can make everything up. Additionally, someone else added that…
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Switching Tracks
After much contemplating and deliberation, I have decided to stop querying my debut novel to literary agents and will officially be making the switch to self-publishing. I can say with all honesty that I gave traditional publishing a good try but, in the end, I made the decision to switch…
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Should I Take the Plunge?
Tomorrow marks five months since I began querying my debut novel, Awakening. I had decided to try my hand at traditional publishing back in September of 2024, which meant the arduous business of querying literary agents. I meticulously kept track of each query I sent out using a lengthy Excel…
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A Rough Start
The transition from 2024 into 2025 has not gone as smoothly as I’d hoped. Right before Christmas I contracted E. coli poisoning. I’m not kidding when I say it was the sickest I’ve ever been. It took a solid two weeks to recover during which I missed most of the…
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A Subjective Business
Being rather new to the querying scene, I have become painfully aware that I have a lot to learn about the process. I always wondered why writers referred to querying as being “in the trenches.” Now, I get it. The term trench conjures up mental images of high muddy walls…
Arwen McCain 