A Deadline and a Case of Artwork-Fueled Motivation

Good morning everyone!  I know I have been pretty quiet for the last week or so but I assure you, it is for a good reason.  I have been writing.  I have set a deadline for The Devil You Know!

No, not a release date.  A deadline.  The date by which the book must be written.  On December 14th, my book needs to be finished.  On that date, I will set and announce my release date.

I have been making great progress to and I think I have to thank my slight case of A.D.D. for that.  Sometime last week, the title for the book #2 in the series, the book AFTER The Devil You Know (which I am not done writing yet), finally came to me.  Once the title was there, for some reason completely and totally unknown to me, I started designing the cover.

I decided that the series will have a different main character on each cover.  Burning (the prequel) featured Anthony, The Devil You Know features Dez and Speak of the Devil will feature Vegas.  So I started shopping for male models.  I found a GREAT selection of photos that were obviously from one shoot and I fell in love with them.  I featured not only a guy but the hands of a girl wrapped around his waist in various poses.  They were sexy but also had a soul mate feel to them.  They were perfect.

And, of course, it turned out that they were being used by someone else!  Bah!!!!!

Scrapped that photo shoot selection and kept looking.  I found that a lot of the models just didn’t look like Vegas to me.  Quite honestly, a lot of the models I found were shaped funny.  Either their muscles were too big or the guys was way too skinny.  There was also the fact that a LOT of the models are tanned…..

Ummm…..vampires don’t tan….

So I searched and searched and finally found a guy!  He’s not the perfect Vegas but he’s probably about as perfect as I will get without hiring a head hunter to go looking through modeling agencies and doing a cover shoot of my own.

I tried out various back grounds and being an urban fantasy series, I opted for a city street at night.  It’s got a grimy feel.  I love it!

So I worked and worked and got a basic mock up done and wrote like a mad woman that night.

Id some more work on the mock up and then wrote some more.  It was weird.  It was like getting the cover art for book #2 gave me this crazy motivation on book 1!  I ended up writing about 3000 words that night.

And while I was working, the title to book #3 came to me!

That’s when I made myself just STOP.  I was focusing all this energy on books that aren’t even started yet when I NEED to get book #1 finished.

So…

I have banned myself from doing ANY artwork and I set my deadline.  December 14th, The Devil You Know MUST be done.  Period.  The end.  Non-negotiable.

As I said earlier, when December 14th comes and my book is finished in its first draft form, I will then set and announce the release date.  I have also been looking into editors and/or editing software and decided I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

So that’s that.  I am spending my lunch break today in a writing frenzy.  I have a super-busy week ahead of me this week so I am going to fit writing in as much as possible.  I have 11 days left and I AM going to make this happen…

This also means that you might not hear from me much until that date.  Remember, the less you hear from me, the better.  It means I am probably busy writing.

To Do List:

Finish the New Chapter One – DONE
Fix Chapter Three – DONE
Finish Writing the Rest of the Book – IN PROGRESS
Write Synopsis
Decide on Release Date
Cover Reveal – DONE
Synopsis Reveal
Send to Beta Readers
Start Editing
Complete the “That” Project
One More Round of Editing
Write Dedication and Acknowledgements
Set Up on CreateSpace
Title Page with ISBN
Format eBooks and Paperback
Create Paperback Artwork
PUBLISH