Happy October!
I can’t believe it’s already October. I feel like I blinked and September was gone. However, I’m excited to be into my favorite month of the year. Autumn is letting itself be known as the cool weather moves in, the leaves are changing, and I’m beginning to see carved pumpkins and decorations on my neighbor’s steps.
I’m especially excited for October as I will be revisiting my novel “A Second Chance”. As you know, this novel is being published chapter-by-chapter in Magpie (see “Stories” page). I sent it out to my beta-readers a couple months ago and I now have it back with notes and thoughts. I’ll be taking October to do my own personal edits while also querying some professional editors for the future. I’m so excited to be working on it and getting it closer to final publication!
Hopefully the novel will be ready next year!
I will also be using October to prepare for NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month. I have participated the last few years and will be returning as my region’s co-ML (Municipal Liaison). With everything being virtual this year, I’m excited to try out some new writing, plotting, and meeting techniques on a BRAND NEW NOVEL IDEA!
If you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year, or have been thinking of joining, be sure to click the button at the bottom of this post to add me as a writing buddy. That way we can cheer each other on as we work to write 50,000 words in the month of November!
This year, I will be working on a completely new novel idea that I am titling “Justice”. This idea came to me when I saw images of the character above on Pinterest (of all places). I’d never played Dark Souls before so I didn’t realize who the character was or what she did in the game (I still don’t, actually). To be honest, the images struck me and an entire trilogy came to my mind.
Yes, you did read that right. A TRILOGY!
This NaNoWriMo I’ll be working on Book 1 of this Fantasy Novel. There will be some romantic themes, but this will NOT be a romance, just in case you were wondering. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone of HEAs (Happily Ever After’s) and romantic settings to write in the dark and twisted setting of this new novel.
I have actually been plotting and preparing this story for the last couple months. Some of you may have seen some sneak peeks on my Instagram posts! I am excited to get working on it soon!
As a part of my preparation for NaNoWriMo, I will be participating in another Instagram challenge, #InstaWriMo. Throughout the challenge I will be giving sneak peeks about the story, characters, and settings I’ll be writing in. To make sure you don’t miss ANYTHING, be sure to follow me on Instagram by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post. You can also follow me on Pinterest to see image inspirations and story boards for ALL my current works in progress.
I hope you all are as excited for October as I am! Be sure to keep an eye out for this month’s book review (“Desperate Measures” by Katee Roberts), cover and content reveal for a special book I’m publishing in November, giveaways, AND MORE!
Until next time, Happy Reading!
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Stories by Shanna Pikora 