Countdown to publishing: The Countdown starts!

I know, I've so not been regular updating here, but that stops now - for a while at least, because no promises. :D Just because I haven't updated here doesn't mean I haven't been doing much. I've been doing a lot in fact, on this crazy journey, so here's a recap for anyone just joining me.

Hello. I'm Koriana and I'm a woman in my early 40s. I've never written creatively before, because while I thought I would enjoy it, I always thought I lacked the ideas to write. I still think that sometimes, and in fact, ideas are the hardest aspect of writing for me. If I have the ideas, the writing part is easier.

Anyways, all that changed exactly a year ago when a penpal sent me a writing prompt at the end of February. It was just meant as an exercise between us, and I should have written a few hundred words and that was the end of it. Instead, I wrote over 2300 words. Another pal, an author, encouraged me to expound on it, so from there, I turned the 2300 words into five chapters and around 16k, if memory serves me correctly. Around this time (mid-March) I learned about Camp NaNoWriMo and decided 'what the hell'. I decided I'd do Camp, see if I could write any more for a full blown story. And since I was jumping in, I challenged myself to write 50k.

I ended up writing 50,306 words! As a pantser - which I didn't even know what that was at the time. I just sat and wrote and book 1 came out... well the first draft of course.

Now, a year later, the tenth (ish) draft is in the final stages. I've given myself a self-imposed deadline, otherwise I'll keep tinkering. The day I set for myself is March 1st, so either on the 29th or the 1st, I'll be putting my book up for pre-orders. I don't have a definitive date for release, but I'm hopeful within the month of March. :D

I can't believe I'm even writing this, or that I've written that!

All through this time, I'll be writing blog posts about it, as a person who never thought I'd write anything or do anything like this.

If there's anything specific you'd like me to blog about - leave me a comment!