What I've been up to lately

Yeah, I know. It's been a shamefully long time since I updated this page. The past 10 months I've been busy because of a family emergency of sorts. Everyone is fine, you needn't worry. But my family needed my help and that took me away form writing for a while. The same can be said for the ongoing construction/remodeling at home. Last summer it reached a stage where I had to pack up a lot of things and get them out of the way. I did manage to squeeze in some writing time and I've made good progress on book 2 of The Oneiroi War. It was at the halfway mark when I had to put it aside in March to work on three contracted short stories that were due back to back. I've finished those up recently. In fact, not only are all three written, two have already gone through edits. So that's a huge relief -- and I need some relief. I've pushed myself too hard these past few months to make up for lost time and to make these deadlines. My arthritic hands are hurting and I'm really fatigued. So rather than jump right back into book 2 I'm going to take a short break. I know a lot of people are eagerly waiting for that next book and I definitely want to get back to it but I really need two weeks off so my hands can recover. I feel terrible delaying it a bit longer but I have to be smart and put my health first.

Never fear though. I do have something new to tide you over while I rest. One of the three stories I worked on over the spring is coming out August 1st! It's part of Uncollected Anthology. Uncollected Anthology is an urban fantasy anthology series. Every volume has a different theme -- this time the theme is fairy tales -- and all of the stories are by really talented authors! What makes Uncollected Anthology really unique is that you can buy all of the stories seperately! You can still buy the whole volume, but I love that the option to only but two or three is available. I'm the guest author for this particular volume and I'm thrilled!

Here is what my story, The Twelve Dancing Sisters, is about: Private Investigator, Chloe Martinez, has had some strange cases but this is the first one that has scared her to death. Twelve sorority sisters disappear every Friday night and no one knows where they go. All of the clues lead to the secretive world that Chloe narrowly managed to escape years ago. If she doesn’t take case these girls might not survive another night. But if she does take the case, Chloe might not be able to escape that world a second time.

You'll find the buy links for The Twelve Dancing Sisters and all of the other stories in the anthology here, at the bottom of the page.

When I have details on the release of the the other two stories I wrote over the spring I'll share them and I'll definitely keep you updated on how book two is coming along. Till then I'll commence my break!

Fiction River: Tavern Tales is out now! My short story, Schrodinger's Bar, is in this volume. I'm very proud of this story. It was a lot of fun to work with Kerrie again! Schrodinger's is a dive bar on a space station where not all is as it seems. It's got a really neat twist at the end, and no, it's not a twist of lime.


You can buy it in print and ebook here:
http://www.wmgpublishinginc.com/project/fiction-river-tavern-tales/

Sparks is out and Eclipse Phase to be in print soon!

Back in January I mentioned that I have a story in the Eclipse Phase: After the Fall anthology, edited by Jaym Gates. Well that e-book is finally being put into print and it's available for pre-order. You can order your copy here. My bookstore will have it as well. I'll make an announcement when they have it in stock.

I'm pretty proud of this story. I feel I really grew as an author with this one. It's the first time I've written tie-in fiction. It was also my first time writing from a gender neutral point of view. The research and process taught me a lot.

The other piece of exciting news is that Fiction River: Sparks, edited by Rebecca Moesta, is finally out! My story, Moonshine, is in this volume and it's near and dear to my heart because I wrote it in honor of my favorite Grandmother. She ran moonshine during the depression in order to feed her family. The newly orphaned teens in this story have to do the same in order to keep the family together.

You can get the e-book on Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/fiction-river-sparks

Amazon has it in ebook:http://www.amazon.com/Fiction-River-Original-…/…/ref=sr_1_3…

and in print: http://www.amazon.com/Fiction-Rive…/…/1561467553/ref=sr_1_2…

And of course my store will have it as well. The shipment is still in transit but we expect it to arrive soon.


Happy reading!

I have a new story out!

I absolutely adore the cover art.

The newest issue of Fiction River is out and my story, Blood Moon Carnival, is in it! The wonderful Kerrie L. Hughes edited this spectacular issue and my story is near and dear to my heart so please go pick up a copy. It's available in print and ebook formats. You can find it on Amazon, Smashwords, and you can order it as part of a subscription to year 3's fantastic issues on Fiction River's website. If you live in Oregon you can also buy it at Reader's Guide bookstore in Salem and I'll sign it for you!

To celebrate the third year of Fiction River, WMG (the publisher) is giving away free ebook copies on Smashwords. If you want the secret code email me at kimmainord@gmail.com before July 31st, 2015.

Fantastic news!

I had a wonderful time at the workshop. Everyone there was so warm and welcoming, both the writers and the hotel staff. I got an insightful look into what editors have to take into consideration when they select stories for an anthology or magazine. It's a lot more complicated than I thought and seeing it in action completely debunks every rejecomancy theory I've heard. But enough on that. I promised you news.

Three of the stories I submitted to the editors sold! Wahoo!!!

My stories will appear in three separate volumes of Fiction River. The first in the Kobo special edition of Pulse Pounders, edited by Kevin J. Anderson. The second will be in the print edition of Alchemy and Steam, edited by Kerrie Hughes and the third will be in the print edition of Sparks, edited by Rebecca Moesta. I'm super excited to have real deadlines instead those that were self-imposed and working with these three is going to be a great experience.

If you want to see what the anthologies will look like you can go to Fiction River's site. The cover for Pulse Pounders is up but it's too soon to see the other two. You can also check out the other editions of Fiction River. Each volume has wonderful stories.

Chibi marathon

If there's a writers equivalent of a marathon than doing the prep work for Dean and Kris' workshop might be a good candidate. I'm used to diddling around with a short story for a two or three weeks before I polish it and send it out. It sounds lazy but it's not. Since short stories aren't worth outlining I tend to approach them like a jigsaw puzzle. I know the overall picture and I spend a couple hours at a time staring at the pieces until I figure out where one goes. Then I'll go work on something else for a while until I feel like staring at the pieces again. However this time around I don't have the luxury.

It's frustrating and stressful as hell but at the same time it's good to be pushed like this. Spending that much time on a short is kind of ridiculous and being able to finish the puzzle faster will be a good skill to have. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to placing those pieces. I've done enough "impossible" tasks this year that I don't doubt that I can do it. I just need to sit down, focus, and prove myself right.

Plot liposuction

Once upon a time I had a weird, vivid dream. When I woke I said "This is a great story idea" and proceeded to write down the idea. The writing went well and before I knew it I had an outline for a novel and a couple partial scenes. Then an evil sorceress cursed me with so many writing projects that I had no time to see this project come to fruition. The outline then spent many years languishing in the pit of postponed ideas.



All right. I wish I could blame my lack of time on an evil sorceress -- actually, there are a lot of things I'd like to lay on her doorstep -- however, seeing as I have no conclusive proof nor an address where I can lay said proof and blame, I have to take it on this one.

There is one thing that was omitted from the above fairy tale. The first half of the story was a trope-laden affair with only a couple of interesting things happening before the stellar ending. At the time I had no idea how to fix it so I allowed the "no-time curse"to take effect. Well, I can proudly say that this particular tale's curse was broken last week.

I needed a short story idea that I could whip out before a contest deadline. As I went over my list of sidelined projects (it's a long list) it occurred to me that if I simply wrote the cool stuff at the end of this story, I'd have a pretty good piece. It wasn't until I was halfway through the first draft that I realized the novel version of the story didn't need to be fixed, it just needed surgery. By cutting away the excess weight it became a much stronger story. As for those two interesting things that were supposed to happen? Apparently they weren't as cool as I originally thought because they got cut and the story won't suffer from the loss.

Why did I have so many lame ideas in one outline? It wasn't story idea overloaditis, I can tell you that much. What I think happened was that because this was one of my early ideas, I made the new writer mistake of assuming that every idea I had was novel worthy. I had yet to learn that some ideas are much better when allowed to be short and simple. In some ways it was a blessing to be time cursed. If I had written it right away, it would have been an atrocious trunk novel. Since I waited until I had enough skill to suck away the fat without killing it, it's become a story that I can be proud to put my name on.



Note: Don't forget that this Saturday I'll have a guest post on The Fictorian Era.