Annual write-a-thon

This weekend, I have been virtually attending a continuing medical education conference. I attend this conference every year. About half the lectures are interesting and relevant.  The rest are less so. During those, I typically write.  I call it my write-a-thon.

This year, I haven't gotten as much writing done as I normally do.  I'm wrapping up the last of the edits that my textbook needs, which has taken priority. Sadly.

Well, I was happily writing Lora when my younger son came into my office.  He's 9. He heard the lecture going on and I flipped back to it so he could see what was going on. Here is the interaction that ensued.

B: Wait, what was that?
Me, flipping to Scrivener: Lora.
B: Who's Lora?
Me, more than a little annoyed: My book? Lora Fletcher?
B: Oh! The girl with the bow and arrow! Are you famous?

Me: Only to some people 💀

My family is very supportive of my "hobby". It still warms my heart that they pay attention to these little details.  The girl with the bow and arrow. Once I finalize the cover, she won't be the girl with the bow and arrow anymore! She's so much more.

Two and a half chapters left to write before I buckle down and start edits!

Until next time 😊

Some fun stuff

So, as I was writing, I realized I didn't have a great idea of how the world outside Ydris looked.  I knew that Korlisse was to the east and Erasteen was up north, but I couldn't grasp how they looked.  In Rarity, I named some towns in Erasteen in a couple of chapters, as well as towns in Shaad, and I couldn't picture them in my mind.  Shaad was across the sea. Anouria was far to the south. But then what? So I spent yesterday and today drawing maps! Let's just say that I'm tired of making triangles for mountains, and I now understand the history of all the wars that have been fought in that world. No, I'm not the type of author who has a world built in its entirety before the writing starts. The more information I have, the harder time I have actually writing. Some of my best plotted out chapters were ones I struggled to write. Like, for a year. So, here we are.

Ydris broke off from Erasteen because, well, they're kind of jerks. Evidently, it's pretty swampy. And cold. Erasteen wants Ydris back so they can have some nice farmland with no swamps. Constant turmoil.

Korlisse is landlocked because of impassable mountains. They have a lot of rivers and a great big lake, but they want port access.  Ydris has that. Anouria does too and are happy to help them out, but evidently, Ydris is where it's at.

Anourians are chill. They have what they need and are happy to trade with others.

Shaad has very little erable land. Their peninsula is essentially Korlisse light when it comes to mountains.  Except instead of being land locked, they're limited to the coasts. They want whatever land they can get. Ydris is ripe for farming.

So that concludes today's history lesson. Enjoy the map!

Andrea.

News I hope you'll like...

Greetings from the Great White North!

My family and I are settling nicely into our new home in Canada. The last 6 months have definitely been a wild ride though.  The remainder of May was spent prepping for our big move. The first 19 days in June were spent driving here from our home in Arizona. We went to 8 national or state parks and visited a number of other interesting landmarks on our way. It was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience.  

We spent the remainder of June into July in quarantine.  At that time, three negative covid tests and a 14+ day quarantine were required to enter Canada from the US.  One of our tests got lost, so our quarantine ended up being 16 days. We had a big celebration on July 4th once we were "freed." Of course, we weren't celebrating July 4th in Canada... Not really anyway!

The remainder of July and August were spent getting the new house in order and prepping my boys for school. They're in French immersion and spent around 6 months being tutored by my mother-in-law so they wouldn't sit there like deer in headlights on their first day. They're doing OK.

September is when school and hockey evaluations began! Youth sports are a huge time suck. As is the contract editing job I took for a textbook I helped write.

Fast forward to Christmas and New Years, our whole family got omicron. We were fortunate to get mild cases. The fatigue is absolutely unreal though. I hope you all have been well and safe and that your holiday season was happy.

So here we are. Today, I finished chapter 30 in Rarity.  Finally. I have been working on this stupid chapter for about a year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the remaining 8 or so chapters come a lot faster.  In any case, I felt you all deserved an update. Thank you for your continued support! I will post here as soon as I type the final words in the book.

Andrea.

Big changes!

Hello!

It's been a long time. Lots has happened since last July, both in the wider world and in my personal life. We were fortunate not to be sick with COVID-19, but many of our wider family and friends were, some even losing their lives or developing long covid. My heart goes out to any of you who have been affected or who have lost friends and loved ones.

I have started writing again. I'm hopeful to be able to get some more in before we move.  Yes, we're moving! You all are aware that we currently reside in Arizona.  Well, we're packing everything up and moving to Ontario in Canada. I'm still waiting to hear from Amazon what that means for my writing, so for now, nothing is changing there.  I'm almost officially done with my current job, and doing things for this crazy international, cross-continent move have slowed down, so I will be writing more! I have been really inspired as of late, and I'm hoping the long hours in the car as we drive across the country will be good for my writing productivity, too.  I wish I could have been writing more often up until now, but when you have a full time job and family aside from this time-consuming "hobby," it's hard to make time for it. But rest assured, Rarity is going to be published. I'm still, sadly, writing faster than George RR Martin (when the heck is Winds of Winter coming out?????). I've got around 8 chapters left, I think, and then it'll be ready to be edited.  You guys will be the first to know once I hit that Publish button. 

Take care of yourselves.

Andrea.

A good update!

I hope you have all been well and safe during this COVID-19 experience we're all going through. My family has been very fortunate, and I'm thankful for that. For us, school is around the corner, so that is taking up the majority of our time.  No, I don't know what the heck people are doing here in Arizona for us to become the epicenter of the world, but it appears someone else has taken our place now, and as sad as that is for those who live there, I'll take it.

I've been writing a lot this week, which will make you all happy, I hope.  I've been pretty inspired as of late, and I'm hoping to push on through over the next little while. I will not give any estimates about when Rarity will be finished.  It seems that whenever I do that, something comes up and I'm thrown off track. I appreciate all of your patience though. 

I got a message from someone in the 'Andrea Irving Author' Facebook group asking about how to pronounce a couple of names.  I went through my character list and included as many unusual or commonly mispronounced names or names with multiple accepted pronunciations as I could think of. There are some names on this list that you haven't seen yet, and I hope that gets your curiosity going a bit. Here is the list:

Lora: like the name Laura

Lorana: loh-RAH-nuh

Allistair: AL (rhymes with HAL) -iss-ter

Catty: CAT-tee, rhymes with batty (don't tell her this)

Genea: jenn-AY-uh

Sylvane: sill-VANE, like window sill and weather vane

Regan: REE-gunn, not like the former President

Dain: Dane, like a person from Denmark

Larence: rhymes with Clarence

Lorcan: LORR-kinn

Jarz: Yars, rhymes with Lars

Ydris: EE-driss

Ydrisan: ee-DREE-senn

Erasteen: AIR-uss-teen

Erastinian: air-uss-TIN-ee-enn

Korlisse: KORR-liss

Korlissean: korr-LEE-see-enn

Shaad: shod, like he ran roughshod around the kingdom

Shaadi: shoddy, like shoddy workmanship

Anouria: uh-NOO-ree-uh

Anourian: uh-NOO-ree-uhn

Glimmen: GLIM-men, like glimmer but with men at the end

Mount Rathbone: Mount RATH-bone, like wrath

Djalriz: JAHLL-rizz

Greichl: GRY-kull, rhymes with Michael

Louis: LOO-iss, not LOO-ee

Sandor: SANN-dorr, rhymes with Mandalore sort of

Yarrow: YAIR (rhymes with hair)-owe (like someone owes you money)

And here's a little teaser:

The king paced back and forth, kicking at an innocent chair every time he passed it. From the look of the unfortunate piece of furniture, it wasn’t the first time he’d taken his frustrations out on it. He stopped after several minutes and looked Lora right in the eyes. “What do you have to say for yourself? It occurs to me that everyone here has spoken about you but you.”

Andrea.

Lora is back in business!

Hello all,

I opened up Scrivener today and read a bit of Rarity. Then I started to write. I haven't written anything since before my dad died in June. Between dealing with that grief, which is ongoing, being the executor of his messy estate, and starting a new job teaching classes I never had before, I had zero time.  And really zero inclination, which really hurts me. Creative people need to express themselves, whether their works are "worthy" of sharing or not.

I'll take writing again as one of the little blessings of COVID-19.  My boys' sports are cancelled.  I don't have to commute to either campus, so a lot of time is saved that way, as well. I have excellent TA's to help me. The boys' schoolwork is not too time intensive for my husband or me so far.  So other than with my new responsibilities with COVID-19 working groups and studying up on my intensive care medicine and ACLS in case I am called to work in the hospital, I actually have time to write!

So, I wanted to let you guys know that I am here. You and Lora have not been forgotten. I don't know how long it will take to finish this book, but it will be done-- and faster than it takes GRRM to publish successive volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Please stay safe and be well.
Andrea.

Delay :(

I was on a roll until June 9th. My dad (stepdad, but he was my dad for 32 years, gave me away at my wedding, my kids call him grandpa..... so my dad) died on June 12th. His funeral was on the 19th.  I am the executor of a disaster of an estate, so in addition to grieving (which I haven't done yet), I am spending every spare moment dealing with that. And it's a doozy. A 1600 square foot house, RV garage, regular garage, a large shed, and a medium shed crammed full of antiques and THINGS, as well as a huge unfinished construction project on the driveway/wall, and a "tenant" in a second house with no rental agreement who is a bit reluctant to leave. And all the general maintenance, bill paying, etc of a household other than mine. Did I mention the hundreds upon hundreds of toy trains that also need cataloging? 

When I got down to the house again after my dad passed, my brother jokingly asked if I'd be working on Lora Fletcher. I wish!  I have a hard time writing when I'm very emotional (other than killing people off who represent people who've angered me in real life), and the time factor.... Rest assured, Lora #2 will get done.  It'll just be even more delayed, for which I deeply apologize for. Remember though, I'm still faster than GRRM, and I don't think the sequel we be as disappointing as the final GoT season. I think Rarity will be pretty darn good when it's done.

Again, thanks for your patience.