For those participating, how is NaNoWriMo going so far? We’re now 17 days in, and I’m fairly satisfied with my progress so far. I like what I’ve put down, and am emotionally attached to my characters, so I’m excited to finish and get to editing.
I’ve been feeling under the weather these last couple of days, so I haven’t gotten as much work done as I would’ve liked, but I’m sure I’ll make up for that lost time eventually. I love creating mood boards, playlists and doing sketches of my characters while I’m writing. I find it helps me capture the characters personality, and see them as more fleshed out. I could honestly spend hours just creating characters, I think that’s why I spend so much time in Create-A-Sim when I’m playing Sims4. I like to imagine the story of their life, what sort of careers they might have, who they’ll love…if they’ll love at all? I love to think about the types of clothes they wear, what they eat, what they listen to, what their favourite genres are. That’s why I had so much fun doing OCtober last year. I wish I did it again this year, but I didn’t have time unfortunately.
For the novel I’m working on right now, I’ve got a playlist going with an array of songs that I find really fit the theme and characters…or just the overall vibe. Heaven, California is one of the songs that just fits the vibe.
Sometimes I just have this playing faintly in the background while writing. I also listen to a bunch of other songs like Greenroom, My Girlfriend is a Witch and Girl With One Eye.
The images above are all outfit inspiration that I draw from for some of the character’s in the novel. Some character’s, at least in my mind, have a signature colour scheme. Occasionally I’ll sketch a series of outfits that I want to describe for key scenes in my novels. This can be helpful when I go back and edit, in case I want to add some more visuals. Sometimes I do this just for fun. With Vermin, I have a lot of outfit sketches and things, especially for Rose. She has a few signature looks that she wears throughout the series.
I’m very excited about this new novel, and of course I will keep you all posted on the next two books in The Vermin Series, and when those will be released once I have more information on that.
As promised, yesterday the EP Songs from Vermin released onto streaming platforms, along with the single Loneliness. I had so much fun recording all of…
I posted the poem for Glitter back in 2020. I’d also recorded myself singing it while playing guitar in my studio after a recording session but never shared it…until now!
For fun, I decided to translate this song into the fictional language from my novel series Vermin. It’s one of my favourite songs by Blackbriar.
This is what the language the Vermin speak–Valdin Zungta–sounds like.
I do hope that you’ll also check out the original song. It’s about Snow White and her sister Rose Red. In this version however, I just made their names Red and White to try and match the syllables.
Vermin has received another wonderful review! Fantasy based stories aren’t usually my forte, especially ones that are part of series which are still unwritten/ released…
This one isn’t going to be very long, but I thought it would be a good time to update you all on books two and three of The Vermin Series.
Book Two
A lot of you have been asking about the release date for book two, and at this time I still don’t know. I can say that I’m thrilled so many of you are eager to read it–I personally can’t wait to have my copy added to my shelf–but unfortunately there’s a publishing backlog, so once I get the okay from my publisher, I’ll let you know the timeline and when the ARCs will be available. What I can tell you, is that I will be hosting two different giveaways at the time of it’s release, so please keep an eye out for that. Announcements will be made here on the blog, TikTok, Twitter and on Instagram.
Book Three
As for book three it is going wonderfully! Hopefully the timeline between these books being printed will not be so long, but the pandemic has really thrown a lot of things off, and folks are still adjusting to the high demand for books. I know how hard these editors work, and my goodness…they are fantastic! I am so grateful.
Other News
Vermin’s gotten more reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Indigo.ca. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read it, and for all of those who added it to your TBR.
Vermin also turned 1 years old this month! Can you believe it? In honour of that, I ate a celebratory crepe. A fun little TikTok was also posted:
I’ve been writing the third book in the Vermin series by hand, which has honestly been cathartic. I don’t know why I stopped drafting novels this way? I think it had to do with tracking my word count for NaNoWriMo honestly…
Back when I was working on the draft for the first book in the series, I had written everything by hand in a binder. After completing it, and transferring the draft onto my computer for editing, and the querying, I wrote the majority of book two’s draft on my computer, only writing the odd scene by hand here and there. The other writing projects I was working on around the time that I was editing book two were also written on my computer versus in a binder or notebook like I’d done previously. I’ve found that writing on my computer for my first drafts restricting. I constantly go back and edit scenes over and over, while I’m drafting when I should be writing, and allowing the story to unfold naturally. Writing the initial draft by hand allows for more freedom. If I make a mistake, I move on, especially since for the first time I’m drafting in pen.
I normally use pencil, but I have so many nice pens, and love the feel of pen on paper, so I went for it.
The other reason I decided to draft book three by hand is because for years I kept telling myself I needed a break from screens, and the pandemic didn’t really help the situation. I check my phone so often throughout the day that I just started leaving it in my room, and trying to only check it a couple times a day for emails from work. I found that outside of reading, I was spending way too much time on my phone just scrolling, and wasting time. Even with my computer, I’d get distracted while working on a scene and go off on a random Google search that would consume so much of my time. If you find yourself getting distracted by such things, I recommend going into your phone settings and using the wellness features that allow you to turn off any distracting apps for a period of time. You can set this as a daily thing, or simply choose one day a week. I have mine set do occur once a week, and I use that time to read and write. It was especially helpful while editing book two because it took away the temptation to play on my phone and watch tiktoks for three hours. Instead I was using those three hours to do the things I actually wanted to do.
I know most newer phones have this feature (my old one didn’t) and I’m honestly thankful for it. I’ve been making an effort to spend less and less time scrolling aimlessly. I recommend not checking your phone first thing in the morning either. If you’re like me and use it as an alarm clock (my alarm clock broke in university), then this can be difficult. What I do is, I simply turn off my alarm and walk away. I focus on getting ready or go eat my breakfast and then, I’ll come back and actually unlock my phone. Being bombarded with all kinds of notifications right when you wake up, can be super distracting. I know that in the past I’ve opened my phone to check an email from my agent, and then ended up going through all my socials, and an hour would pass. An hour that I could’ve spent getting ready for the day. After a while this can get a bit overwhelming, so instead I don’t bother checking my phone until an hour after I’ve woken up. I don’t know why, but I guess it just sets the tone for the rest of the day.
Since making this change I’ve found that book three is coming along nicely. The entire process has been lovely. I’m fully focused, and don’t need to constantly reread sentences because I was distracted by YouTube or a sale somewhere or what’s trending on Twitter. I’ve just been writing, and having fun. My mind isn’t wandering. I’m super excited about book three, but that is all I’m going to say as I don’t want to accidentally spoil the events of book two before anyone can get their hands on it. I still don’t know they release date for the second book in the series, but I will let you know as soon as I get word on that. I had a lot of fun writing it, but I just really needed a break from constantly being on the computer, after three years of it. I have nothing against technology or anything, but damn…social media is so distracting. It’s sad how many hours are wasted just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I’d rather read or draw or go lay in my hammock and stare at clouds for an hour.
Now outside of book three news, if you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that I’m doing an in-person book signing! I’m absolutely thrilled about this. I was a little nervous to do one alone since I didn’t get an opportunity to do one when my book initially released because of the pandemic, but thankfully the fantastic author Lindsey-Anne Pontes, whose book I reviewed a while back here on the blog, asked if I’d join her for a signing. She’s done plenty, so I’m glad to have her there with me. Initially I was very nervous but as the date approaches, I’m feeling less nervous and more excited.
As a little kid I always imagined doing a book signing. I wanted to have my books all laid out nicely in a cute display on the table, and write nice messages to readers, and talk with them about my work. I’ve been to a handful of signings in my life, and the authors were always so great. I’m hoping I give off that same vibe to people who come and say hi. I’d love to recreate that feeling for someone else. Meeting and talking to someone about their book is so much fun!
I actually have a list of authors that I would love to meet someday, and now that signings are finally happening again I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to.
I am planning on doing another signing when book two releases, and am looking forward to sharing my other writing project with everyone soon. I’m also just very excited to talk about my novel in person.
If you’d like to purchase a copy of Vermin, you can get it from Amazon or Indigo.
If you’ve already read the first book, don’t forget to leave a review and stay tuned for book two announcements!
Thank you to everyone who entered the Vermin giveaway contest on Goodreads! We’re thrilled to announce that we have our four winners, and I personally…
Vermin was featured on Breakeven Books! Which, if you didn’t know already, Erik is one of my favourite Booktubers, I’ve actually featured his channel on…
(Ah, it draws you near/Within this atmosphere you feel no fear)
Smoke hangs in the air
And draws you near
Within this atmosphere
You feel
No fear
Under birch trees
And foggy skies
You forget that
We all die
Under birch trees (Circling, circling. Lingering, it’s lingering)
The air is clear (Circling, circling. Lingering, it’s lingering)
Except the mist that hangs (Circling, circling. Lingering, it’s lingering)
It’s always here
It’s always here
It’s always here
I wrote this song while thinking about the swamp my friends and I used to hang out in as teenagers. I’d get so many mosquito bites, but there was something pretty about all birch trees, trilliums and the mist on the water that always sparked our imagination.
I’m currently doing a read through of my manuscript trying to watch out for crutch words. While drafting my manuscript I kept a list of these words, words that I tend to overuse, and going through the list I’m actually pleased with how just keeping track of them has helped me reduce them a fair amount. Now that I know what the results are for each of these words, I’ve set a minimum and maximum usage amount, followed by alternative words so that I can focus on finding appropriate substitutes. I base the usage amount of the overall word count for my manuscript.
Of course, I’m sure my editor will find other words that I may not have picked up on myself, but many of these words are ones that they pointed out with my first book, so I’m hoping to reduce them before passing my manuscript along to her.
Crutch words aside, I’ve also created a checklist outside of my draft notes on any corrections, additions or areas that I think need fluffing or cutting down. I’ve also included a list of things to keep in mind while I’m reading.
I like to do these types of full edits before I pass my manuscripts along, because I find that the cleaner my draft is, the easier time we’ll have going over it.
For this edit, I’ve been making great use of my thesaurus, and am challenging myself to step away from my comfort zones a little bit. Anything that seems off or feels like it needs to be reworked or cut, I’ve been tackling immediately. My goal is to complete this edit by the end of the day, and so far I’ve been making great progress. With that said, it’s back to work for me. I’ll be treating myself to some ice cream once I complete everything on my list.
Ardin Patterson 