Sunday, June 22, 2008

Still Editing ... And Some Contest Winners

I'm still chugging away on the edits and so far I'm pretty pleased with the progress that I'm making. I'm more than half way through Book 2 -- which does officially have a name, I just can't announce it yet -- and I've also started doing my final edit of the Novella before shipping it off to my editor -- who is just now getting back from her vacation in Africa. Of course, the biggest changes to the novel are going to happen in the last half of Book 2, so I see my progress slowing down considerably during the next week.

I still really like Nightwalker, but I have to admit that I really, really like Book 2 (Is that evil of me?) In Nightwalker, you get to meet all these strange and interesting characters, but in Book 2, you are able to get deeper into their backgrounds and you start learning more about why they are making some of the decisions they've been making.

As for the writing of Book 2, I can see some of my own progress ang growth. The style has gotten tighter and my editor is making far fewer comments than she did with Nightwalker. I think that is one of the things that has worried me the most between Book 1 and Book 2 -- did I grow as a writer? Did I learn from my mistakes in Book 1 and become a better writer with Book 2?

A good friend and an author that I admire greatly is Kim Harrison. Growth as a writer is something you see with each of her books in the Rachel Morgan series. Each of her books are wonderful, but I think within the series, each one gets progressively better. As one writer reading another, you can tell she's learning and growing with each book, and that truly puts me in awe of her.

And before I forget, the cover flat contest results. I went through my stockpile of goodies and decided that instead of giving away 1 cover flat, I am now giving away 2 cover flats so I picked 2 separate winners. Along with the cover flats, the winners will be receiving a magnet with the book cover on it as well as a travel mug -- for the vampire on the go. Actually, I went with the travel mugs because Mira is globe-hopping so much I figured that Danaus might need something to keep his coffee in as he tries to keep up with her.

So the winners are:

Emily Rose

and

Shari C.

Please contact me at Jocelynn (dot) Drake (at) gmail (dot) com with your names and addresses so I can ship your prizes out to you.

Thank you to everyone that entered the contest. There will be one more contest before the book release for an Advance Reader Copy (ARC). I will probably be holding that contest right after we get to the 1-month mark for the release of Nightwalker.

Also, if there is enough interest, I will probably be selling the mugs and the travel mugs that I have been giving away. However, I will not be making any decisions regarding that until after the book has been released.

4 comments:

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Congrats to the winners!!
I'm glad that you are growing as a writer. it's bound to happen. I hope the rest of book 2 continues to go well!

Lauren

Heather Harper said...

Oh! Please do sell the mugs. I love mugs. They are my addiction.

Christine said...

Kudos to you, Jocelynn, on your edit and writing progress. I think its great that you can acknowledge your own growth!

Congrats to the contest winners, too! :)

danetteb said...

Congrats Emily and Shari!

hugs, Danette