Hello Fans,

First off, wow. It has been a long time since I’ve posted on my site. If you follow me on social media, you’ll know that I have published a couple of new stories. Yay! I’ll post the links to those at the end.

I wanted to talk about one of my works-in-progress that you may or may not remember. It is currently in the sample chapters section of this site. After years of agonizing over these most beloved characters, I am happy to announce book one is coming out very soon!

Over the years, I would open up this manuscript and the task of editing and revising it was too much for me. So, I let it sit in my files – unfinished. Some of the things I thought about as I pondered how to get this story out to you guys was maybe I started the story too soon, maybe I should only focus on one character at a time, maybe this and maybe that.

Then it hit me. What’s the story about? Alyssa and Marco. Everything else is secondary. The history of Augusto, the history of the Walkers and the Runners. All secondary. The main story is Alyssa and Marco. Are they really destined to be together? How can they overcome the obstacles that force them apart?

I looked over my manuscript again. I saw that three years ago, I thought about breaking up the story into smaller books. So, that’s what I’ve done. I pieced together the heart of the story into a short 10,000-word story. Don’t worry this is just the beginning. I am not just going to tell the entire story in 10,000 words. No way!

Dreamers Destiny still needs to be edited and revised one more time before I release it, but it is coming together. I am going to spend the next few weeks working on book two and three, and however many more I’ll need to finish the entire saga. This has been a labor of love as I reconnected with these characters.

I can’t wait for you all to see what I’ve done. Please keep an eye out on social media for updates and links!

Now for the links to my other new books. I am also writing under the name: S.H. Steele now, and publishing through Dream Write Literary Publishing!

Project Chimera

The Den

Thanks for being loyal readers and patient as I find my creative side again. This is just the beginning of the announcements I’ll be making this year!

…to wait for an update on my writing. To those who are interested, I am still writing. However, my focus has shifted since I graduated a year and a half ago. Yes, you read that right, I graduated. Since then, I opened an editing service and literary journal. It has been slow going, but I enjoy the work and I am looking forward to what 2018 brings me.

I know you are all wondering what projects I am working on. I might have a small update on the Alien/Witch story, but I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it here or not.

Current projects:

Alien/Witch – It is much like it sounds, if you remember. If not, this story is about an alien girl, who happens to also be a witch. I have the first part of this story written, but I haven’t made it much past that.

New Love Story – I participated in NaNoWriMo this year, and for the first time in years, I won! I still haven’t settled on a name and the story itself is shorter than the 50,000 word manuscript that I currently have. There was a lot of brainstorming and venting about not being able to write. I also outlined the entire story for the first time. It was weird and oddly satisfying. I still like to sit down and write whatever comes, but with the outline technique that I found, I was able to write a bear minimum outline and be able to keep the mystery of the entire story until I wrote it. I have a few month chapters left to write, but I thought I would share what this one is about. — The main characters are Henry and Harper. They went to high school together and were in an accident with their friend Shay. After the accident they write letters to Shay. This is the interesting part. Each chapter is in either Henry or Harper’s perspective and we get to read about bits and pieces of their life as they write to Shay. I don’t want to say much more or I’ll give away the best parts of the story. I am hoping to finish the first draft by the end of January and the revised second draft before the summer, so that I can have it edited and published by the fall or winter of next year.

Princess Fantasy Story – this one I just started brainstorming about. I got fed up with all the Christmas love stories where the Prince is always the one to take the throne. As I outlined the story, it felt like it was missing something. I started to research countries with monarchs, but then a friend suggested I make it a fantasy. As of today, I am still trying to decide what type of creature the royal family and their kingdom are or what types of creatures live in the kingdom. If you have any input, I would be happy to consider your ideas!

That is all I have to update you all on. Happy writing.

Sandy

It is NaNoWriMo again! Yay! If only I wasn’t so busy, I would actually plot out a story and participate fully this year. I am keeping a file that I add to hear and there in order to keep track of the things I have been writing this November. It is day 13 and I am at 5,607 words. It is slow, but I don’t have as many papers this semester as I did last year.

As a way of updating you of my writing accomplishments, I have finished looking through the notes of “The Honeymoon” and will be working towards a final draft in the coming months. I am also considering changing the name of the book for the final release, but will continue to call it “The Honeymoon” until I figure out what to call it.

“24 Hour Roommates” has been on sale for audio book since September and it has sold 10 copies since then. Yay! If you would like your own copy, I have 23 promo codes to give out to anyone who replies to this posting.

Be sure to check back for more updates. Thank you fans!

Sandy

Hello readers,

It has been a long time since I updated you on the progress of my projects. Here is the latest on what I’ve been up to and what I’m planning for this summer. I don’t recall which projects I’ve talked about already, so there may be new projects in this update!

“The Honeymoon”

This is a working title. I am 2/3 of the way through my proofreaders notes. Which means that I’ve gone through 2 of the 3 copies. I am currently working on the third one. Ideas for what I can do to improve this piece are coming every day. Today I ran out of those posted note tabs, so progress halted until I can acquire more! I have big plans for two minor characters and I’m considering taking the draft copy and throwing it up in the air. That process could prove interesting to the overall story.

“Dreams Change Lives”

Still in the proofing stage. I need to find one of my proofreaders and see how far she is in the process. Hopefully she hasn’t lost it. No real news for this one, but I can’t wait to get started on the editing and revising of this story.

“A Walker’s Destiny”

This one, I had a major epiphany on the other day. I don’t know how I didn’t see this before. I’m contemplating changing the narrative to a single character so we can see the world through her eyes. I also need to talk with my proofreaders to see how far they are in reading the story.

“Moving Out”

I wrote this one for my fiction writing class this past semester. The idea was to see if I could create a literary world without writing to a specific genre and then after the semester was over to change elements to fit the genre of Science Fiction/Fantasy. It was supposed to be a short story, with the intent to make it a larger work. I just don’t know how to write short stories! Haha! Novellas I can write, short stories are more difficult. Anyway, this story centers around Melody, a young girl who is moving out of her mom’s apartment and going off to college (this was the basis of the short story). In the novel, I am going to write she will be an alien who wants to know about her Earthling father, who just happens to be a witch (wizard, warlock, what-have-you…haven’t decided the terminology yet). So, she is part Alien, part Witch. Fun times ahead, right?? Should be. I am taking inspiration from Charmed and Superman, which you will see throughout the story.

I am just going to let this one sit on my jump drive for a little while though. I thought I would let you know that my creative juices haven’t stopped flowing. I have been busy with school (hopefully I only have 2 years left! yay!) and the kiddo!

Thank you readers! Have a great day!

Sandy

Yay! It was time for a re-design. It took a couple of layouts, but I think I finally like one. If you were on today for a couple of hours, you may have noticed the other layout I tried. What didn’t work with that one, was the menus. I must have too many menu options! Haha! Oh, well. Hopefully this will work for a while.

In NaNo news…my kiddos word count goal has been changed to 1,000. He is sitting at about 330 words or just over that. He is a rock star! He can write about 100 words in an hour, which for an 8 year old I think is awesome. Sometimes I will type for him, but still it is pretty great!

My original plan isn’t working as well as I’d hoped, so I started an actual story. It is about a young pop star who is about to get married. It has flashback scenes of how she meets her man, how she becomes a star, and then we will eventually get to the wedding. Should be fun! Every story is fun.

I am also including in my word count everything I write in November. So, this post and the one from November 1st will be included. Yay! Is that cheating? Oh well! I have two five page papers to write this month so…yay for word count! One of the papers I will only be including what I write because it is a group project. There is only one other person in my group, so…yay!

I sadly haven’t even hit 5,000 words…last time I checked. I very well could have by now, but I won’t know until I add this into my word count. Hopefully I have hit 5,000. I am so far behind, it is very sad. And now I am rambling!

Until next time, readers. Enjoy!
Sandy

And that means NaNoWriMo!! Yay!!

I am trying a different genre this year…self-help/creative non-fiction. Should be interesting. Though, I have been sick for the past week and I am just getting started. Hopefully it works out.

This is my kiddos first year doing the youth program and I set his goal at 5000, which means he just has to write 167 words a day. His word count is already over 170! Way to go, buddy!!

Off to write some amazing stuff. Good luck to all you NaNoWriMo’s out there!!