Amanda Jayde

Up from the cave

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Amanda Jayde

The writing/editing cave that is.

I’ve finished my first round of edits with my editor. I cannot begin to explain how daunting it is to edit a book that’s been corrected and read by someone with the expertise to point out ALL your mistakes. You go through a whole set of emotions from embarrassment to self-doubt to resignation to confidently going through your baby. It’s a fantastic tool though because I think as a writer you never really see your writing the way others do and you finally see how often you use words and phrases (or lack of punctuation SMH LOL). Each time you go through it you learn more about your writing and you learn to look out for certain things. In DARK MOON RISING my favorite word was nod – lordie lordie did I use that a lot … in BENEATH THE BLOOD MOON my word du jour was smile LOL. What can I say? They were a much happier clan LOL!

Thanks to my editor Chrissie, I’ve toned it all down and it is a much tighter, better flowing book that I hope you’ll all like.

Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Random Ramblings, Writing | Tagged Beneath the Blood Moon, blogging, Dark Moon Rising, pinterest, Romance Trading Cards, Romantic Times Convention, writing | Leave a comment

I have COVER ART!!!

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Amanda Jayde

So just a quick update, I’ve recieved first edits from my wonderful editor so I’m working on those feverishly. Making tweaks here and there and just tightening the story a bit – I say THANK GOD for editors who make you sound better than you thought you could 🙂

Last night after going through a few chapters … okay it was one chapter – I get so distracted easily LOL – I checked my email on my phone before heading up to bed and what should I see, but an email from April Martinez, cover artist extroidinaire! She had draft 1 of my cover ready for me to see.

I held my breath and waited for the picture to show and ….. immediately fell in love. I ADORE my cover!!

Soooooo you want to see it? Well check out the page for BENEATH THE BLOOD MOON by clicking here. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Until Next Time,

Posted in Webby Stuff, Writing | Tagged Beneath the Blood Moon, Dark Wolf Series, Romance Trading Cards, webstuff, writing | Leave a comment

Quick Update

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Amanda Jayde

Soooo I submitted Book 2 in the Dark Wolf Saga to my publisher for consideration and I got a request for revisions back. So I revised and resubmitted today. Fingers crossed, I’ll hear something within the next couple of weeks and have good news.

In other news, editing of the new book is underway and BOY does it need work LOL. What was I thinking? It should take me a couple of months to get it to where I think it should be then it’s off to my beta readers for their feedback and pointers and then I will decide what to do with it. I was thinking of submitting it to a couple of other publishers just to see if I can get more attention, the other consideration I was thinking about was self-pubbing it. I haven’t quite decided yet though.

Lastly, coming up the pipe is another contemporary, the 3rd book in the Dark Wolf Series will be plotted and hopefully begun by mid-summer to Fall, I will be releasing DARK MOON RISING in print as well and there’s a collaboration with a new website that I am involved with where I’ll be writing a serial.

Lots of good things coming in 2012 I hope!

Until Next Time!

Posted in Writing | Tagged Beneath the Blood Moon, Dark Moon Rising, Updates, writing | Leave a comment

1st Writing post of the year

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Amanda Jayde

Well I am happy to announce that the 2nd book in the Benandanti Dark Wolf Series is officially off on submission. I’m hoping it is received well as it took FOREVER to finish – I NEVER ever take more than a year to finish a story I am working on, but between my dad’s stay in the hospital to start the year and my cat’s health problems to end it, it seemed like fate was throwing lots of curveballs in my way.

I feel good about this story, I like the characters, it’s not as heavy as the first one. This one has a little more humor and is just a little more “me”.

So what’s up next? Back to edit my contemporary. I love this story and I am heading head first into edits. I hope to have it finished by the end of February. I may shop it around to a couple of e-pubs, but I’ve also been playing with the idea of self-pubbing it, just to see what that’s like.

For some of my inspiration, check out my Pinterest board by clicking here.

Well that’s all for now.
~AJ

Posted in Random Ramblings, Writing | Tagged Beneath the Blood Moon, writing | 1 Comment

Good-bye 2011

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Amanda Jayde

Happy New Year to everyone visiting.

I hope you close 2011 with joy and laughter and bring in 2012 with the same. I wish for you: Love, Happiness & Prosperity in the coming year.

Auld Lang Syne

Enjoy, my favorite version of this song and I’ll see you in 2012.

Until Next time,
_AJ

Posted in Life, Random Ramblings | Tagged 2012, Auld Lang Syne, Holidays, Music, New Year | Leave a comment

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Amanda Jayde

Has anyone heard of this? I hadn’t until one of my best friends posted about it on facebook. It is really cool, especially if you’re a visual person.

As part of my writing process I usually pick out pictures of people and places that inspire me or remind me of a character. I keep these with notes in a binder and in a program that another friend bought for me that allows me to brainstorm and keep things like this in order. Well Pinterest is a site where you pin your pictures to a virtual board. I am loving the site.

The website right now is running on an invitation only basis, but if it sounds like something you might like, why not let me know and I’d be happy to pass on an invitation to you. You can check out my board here (I’ll also post a link on my links page). Right now it’s at a bare minimum as I’ve just started to populate the pages.

Until Next Time,
~AJ

Posted in Life, Webby Stuff, Writing, Writing Tools | Tagged webstuff, Writer's Tools, writing | 3 Comments

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Amanda Jayde

So did you guess that today’s song is Silent Night … nope. Actually it’s from Celtic Thunder and it’s a song about a real life truce that happened during WWI.

Warning it may make you a tad depressed but I LOVE the song and the emotion it brings out, plus the guys aren’t half bad to look at and their voices are BEAUTIFUL.