I've had some turbulence this last month. Two weeks ago, my mother passed away, and I completely stopped my editing and writing. Today, I've started editing Waxing, book two of the Obsidian Embers Trilogy, again. Here's my current favorite line edited. "She’d been in Zulfikar less than a day, but the second she’d found an inn, she’d shaved her head and bought dresses. As much as she hated all the exposed flesh, she hated the idea of dying from the sun even more."

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All right, I've had a little break, so now it's time to start in on edits for Waxing, book two of the Obsidian Embers Trilogy. #amwriting #amwritingfantasy

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Is anyone interested in a signed paperback copy of Kindling? They'll be $20, and if you know anyone who likes dark fantasy, they'll make great gifts!

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Thank you so much for the support! I hope to be doing this all again next year, so please stay tuned. :D

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And the party has started! I'm doing character introductions right now, which means you're going to get excerpts! Pop over and meet the characters. :)

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For NaNoWriMo this year, I've been working on Devouring, book three of the Obsidian Embers Trilogy. Here's a tiny excerpt, the last thing I wrote today. She shook her head and narrowed her eyes, focusing her mind again on her friend lying motionless and unconscious in their tent. “You nearly killed my friend.” “Did I?” He widened his eyes and tilted his head. “I’m slipping. I meant to fully kill him.”

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I'm excited to say I've got quite a lot going on for the last half of year. Things in my personal life are coming into order, and that means I'm feeling happier and have more energy to work on my writing. I've just submitted a witch story to an upcoming anthology, and I'm just about to sit down to work on a demon story for another. After that, I'll be writing a fantasy story for an upcoming anthology with the theme "Magic on Tap" from Star's End Press which involves brews of all sort where I'll go back to Millicent, my female assassin who appeared in Kingmaker. After that, I'll be trying my hand at sci-fi for another Star's End Press anthology. Finally, my novel is slated to come out in November! Keep tuned, lovely people, I'm really getting on a roll now!

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It's #MusicMonday, something I've been neglecting due to a chaotic personal life, but we're back to it! Today I bring you Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour. This reminds me of Nico, a character you won't even meet until the second book in my series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic0zXROe408

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I was tagged to play the Influential Author game, so I'm going to post 15 authors who have influenced me. Several of these will likely not be a surprise. 1. Joe Abercrombie 2. Brent Weeks 3. R.A. Salvatore 4. Madeleine L'Engle 5. Terry Brooks 6. Augusten Burroughs 7. Neil Gaiman 8. John Connolly 9. C.S. Lewis 10. J.R.R. Tolkien 11. .... And I ran out of authors to list. Those are the authors that have influenced my decision to write, how I go about the process, influenced me to embrace the style and tone I want to write in, and I don't have any more of them. There have been books over time I've read and loved but that I can't remember the name of or the author, and those were influential too, but I can't list them if I can't remember them. ;)

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Allow me a moment to flail around in excitement. I got my concept sketches back from my cover artist for Kindling! :D Publication moving right along. #amwriting #publishing #gettingthere #excited #fantasy

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I must be weird. I always fall in love with side characters who don't have much of a role in the story. Shadow Hound and Bones in my current short story are good examples. I love Talbot and Quiz from Waxing, I love Puzzle from Kith nor Kin...none of them have much to do in their own stories, but I love them. Makes me want to write about them. I shall never be done writing. :P

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I was was tagged in an author questionnaire by Angie Grigaliunas so I'll fill it out for you. :) Let’s play 20 questions – author edition! Answer the 20 questions below and let your readers into your world! 1.) What is your author name? -- Angel Blackwood 2.) What is the first book you ever published? -- The first thing I had published was "Of Oceans and Oblivion" in an anthology called The Road Taken Anyway. My full-length novel won't be out until early November. 3.) What is your publiversary (the day you released your first book)? -- Umm...Spring 2014. 4.) What is your favorite book you’ve written thus far? -- Kindling and the ones that go with it. But my favorite short story is Of Oceans and Oblivion. 5.) What book took you the longest to write? -- Kindling 6.) How long did it take you? -- About a year altogether. 7.) What kind of music do you listen to while you write (if any)? -- A weird mix of rock, metal, folk metal/rock, musicals, steampunk, and other things. 8.) Who is you favorite character from any of your books? -- I love Verin way more than I should love a villain. 9.) What are you currently working on? -- Waxing (book 2 after Kindling), and I'm working on two short stories. 10.) Do you have anything you snack on while you write? -- Not really. 11.) What is your favorite quote or line from one of your books? -- I actually don't have one. I love a lot of what I write, but I haven't picked out a favorite line really. Zahir says at one point "A warrior knows when to fight and when to run." I like that. 12.) Are you a self-published or traditionally published author? -- Both Indie and Traditional. 13.) What is your writing inspiration? -- I get inspiration mostly from music, but otherwise, it's just me. 14.) What genre do you write? -- Fantasy, mostly, but I dabble in other genres too. 15.) Do you have any writing rituals? -- Not at all. 16.) Do you have a specific place you write or time? -- No. I write whenever I can. 17.) Do you have any advice for inspiring writers? -- When it gets hard and feels like the story stops and the words won't come, when you feel rejected and dejected, just keep writing. The words come back, the story will keep going, someone needs you to finish your story. Your story will be the most important story in someone's life. 18.) What are your writing goals? -- Get my books to people, have people love them, make some money (hopefully enough to partially live on at least), and maybe make it big. 19.) What authors inspire you and your writing? -- Joe Abercrombie, R.A. Salvatore, and Brent Weeks. 20.) What will you release next and when (if you know)? -- "Forest of Bones" in August, "Children's Dreams and Other Dead Things" this fall, a demon story after that, and Kindling in November.

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One short story down and two more to go. I'm already a few hundred words into a story about a male witch - Mace - that will be a prequel story to my first ever published story "Of Oceans and Oblivion" which can be found in The Road Taken Anyway on my author Amazon page. After I'm done with Mace's story, I'll start in on a demon one. :) #amwriting #writingallthethings #gettingmygrooveback

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I have to say, the best thing to come from the anthology I'm going to be in next month (the one where I was given a genre I never write - YA Urban Fantasy) is that in being forced to write in the modern world, I've learned I don't hate it quite as bad as I thought I did (though I probably won't ever write UF again) and I've enjoyed being able to include music with the story. #amwriting #fantasy #urbanfantasy #zombies #yestherewillbezombies #writingmusic

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What I Wish I Knew About Writing Before Starting

I wish someone had told me how many times I would read and edit my own work. I started writing when I was thirteen, and back then, no one I knew could have told me that. Back then, when I finished writing something, I was done. I never read it again, I never edited, I just finished and praised myself.

I started writing again in college after some good words from a dear professor who has helped me immensely. If it wasn't for him, I would never have started up again, and I wouldn't have short stories in several books or a publishing contract with Ed Greenwood (one of my idols). But he never talked about how many times editing had to happen. I joined a handful of writing groups on Facebook, and maybe I just dismissed it any time I saw it, maybe I never noticed it, but I never picked it up from them that I would need to do the amount of work that goes on after your write The End.

When I finally finished my first solo project during NaNoWriMo of 2014, I did a quick scan for certain key grammar issues, and set it aside.

When my co-author left without warning and decided he was done, thus ending our writing together before it was finished, I moped. Then I picked up the book and started over. That's when I learned how hard it is to get a novel from first draft to finished. I already detailed my editing process, but I wish someone had told me then how long and how hard I would work to get it to a place where it was actually ready. Writing is a hard process, it takes a lot of work, sleepless nights, headaches, research, so much. I wouldn't trade it for anything though. I love all that hard work, and I can't explain the joy when my book is finished, really finished.

What do you wish you'd known before you started writing? Leave a comment. :)

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Description: Podcasts are a wonderful free resource for writers. Over the past few months I have overhauled my writing life and my newfound love of podcasts has played a key role in this transformation. …
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How I Edit My Novel

I've never mentioned it over here, but along with being an author, I'm a freelance editor. I've been editing for years now, and more than a few of my clients have gone on to publish. I'm asked often how, as an editor, I edit my own work. I go through several phases for editing for myself.

Stage 1: I give myself a break. This usually only lasts about a week before I feel like I need to get back to it. So I start rereading from the beginning, fixing any typos or grammar issues I find. This is also the time I start noticing any plot holes and trying to close those up. When I reach the end, I rest again.

Stage 2: This is another read through to finish plugging any holes in the plot.

Stage 3: This isn't a read through, but I do go through and spot search for any grammar errors I might have missed. From here, I send the story to my beta readers and wait.

Stage 4: When I get the story back, I go through the notes left for me, and I fix anything that still needs to be fixed. When that's done, I read over it one more time, and then I consider myself done.

So, there it is, all written out for all those people who have asked me how I edit my own work.

Been a while

It has been a while since I've posted over here, and I do apologize for that. There have been some significant changes.

I signed with an agent from Trident Media Group last year, which was amazing, and then late last year I signed with Ravenswood Publishing. Right around the same time, I signed on to write with The Ed Greenwood Group, which has me nearly hyperventilating. Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms setting that R.A. Salvatore writes in, and Salvatore has always been a huge influence and one of my favorite authors.

So now that things have settled down, I'll be back over here more frequently, or I'll try to.

Look for an excerpt later. :)