(New logo... been playing on Canva and Vista, and have new cards coming. Fun!) My writing goals I'm looking at in 2024 are pretty aggressive, I realize. But, mindset is everything, and I have all day to write now, AND these stories have been percolating in my mind for far too long. Time to let them shine.
1. I'm republishing the first three Elliot Lake novels (after I clean them up) starting in January 2024 under my new business name. I'm also going wide with all of my books this time, so there will be a learning curve there. But I'll figure that out as I go along. The fourth and final Elliot Lake novel will then be released, and that is slated for April, my birthday month. Seems appropriate. I love Elliot... my sarcastic reporter living on the Oregon Coast who is surrounded by a crazy town of characters and falls in love with the mysterious woman with the violet eyes. From his quiet life in his trailer on the beach to saving the world from global catastrophe... he can do anything as long as he has enough coffee, so keep it coming! 2. May will be the re-release of Six Dates with Jenna. She'll be getting a read-through and a new cover, I think... I'll see when I get there, but this is a standalone YA romance and I really love these characters. It's set in the mountains of Zigzag, Oregon, tucked under the shadow of Mt. Hood. Can our young star-crossed lovers who only meet six times over the course of four years somehow carve out a future together, despite distance, society, and paparazzi doing their best to keep them apart? 3. In June, my plan is to debut the first novel (The Wonderly Ghost) in my new small-town drama series, Birdsong Bay. Romance, mystery, and magic meet in this 12-book series that I have been planning for years (wayyyy before I bought Rosemary Hill in Oregon and developed my plans to open a lavender farm that have now been tossed in the trash). With no more farm chores, I can just write, so that's what I'm doing, dang it! All 12 novels are already fleshed out, several of them already have thousands of words and outlines, and the family trees for the series are ready... so my goal is to release a new novel in this series every other month. If I stick to this schedule, Birdsong Bay will take me through April 2026, which, funny, is still my birthday month, so that's fun! That's a great reason for a party. At this time, Birdsong Bay is the fictional town set in Astoria, Oregon, where I lived when I began planning and writing this series. But then, when we moved to Roseburg, Oregon, I spent many months switching the descriptions and names and businesses and just the entire configuration of the town itself to be set in the Umpqua Valley of SW Oregon. NOW, I find myself living in eastern North Carolina, but this area is not inspiring me at all for this series, so the big question is, where do I set this series?? That is one of the things I'll be deciding this month so I can start writing these novels. 4. In July 2024, I'm re-releasing my novel, Finding Mallory, an adult romance set in a town inspired by Tillamook, Oregon. Hopefully Jack and Mallory find some new fans out there in the world because their love story is full of overcoming heartbreak, learning to love again, with a bit of thriller mixed in when Mallory's horrible ex shows up to get her back. 5. Because my Birdsong Bay series will be coming out every other month, I had the idea to release a short story of some kind on the off months. Something around 5,000 words or so. Over the last month, I've been thinking about this, making notes and name lists, looking for inspiration everywhere, and I settled on a series of letters written by the main character of a new series to someone who is no longer living in her town. At first, I thought maybe she was writing her best friend who'd moved away, keeping her filled in about what is happening in their hometown. I also saw her still living in the house she grew up in, but her parents are gone now... but she still has her aunties and a crazy uncle in town, maybe some cousins, lifelong friends, plus everyone else in town who's known her over the course of her entire life. Her town needed a name, the valley the town sits in needed a name, and I tossed around ideas for the industries and businesses in the town and surrounding rural valley... and where her love would come from. Is he someone who already lives there? Did she grow up with him? Or does he show up from the outside? Will there be magic in this series? And what does our heroine do all day? World building is one of my favorite things, obviously. LOL So here is what I have so far: the town is Berry Brook, which is nestled in Candlewick Valley. The letters our main character will be writing (and I'll be releasing every other month as short stories) will be Letters from Candlewick. At the end of the Birdsong Bay series, I'll have around 10 Letters from Candlewick that I will then compile into one volume. This volume will be released as its own title (The Candlewick Compendium? The Candlewick Companion?), as a lead-in to the Candlewick Valley series, but the novels in the series will also stand on their own. I may also use the compendium as a giveaway/perma-free offering to lead people to the series. But yesterday, I had another revelation. I can link Birdsong Bay and Candlewick Valley together if I have the Letters from Candlewick being addressed to someone who is in the Birdsong Bay series! Once that idea took hold, I wrote three pages about the relationship between the two series-linking characters and ways I can create crossovers between the two towns and casts of characters. The idea is, after people read the next in the Birdsong Bay series, the next month's letter will be another glimpse of the new world of Candlewick Valley, plus revealing how it ties into Birdsong Bay, but from a different, outside point of view. To say that I'm excited about all of this is an understatement. I cannot wait to see where I'm at with everything in a year, then two years.... and five years and beyond. My ultimate goal is to build Forsythia Cottage Writing & Design into a strong enough business that it will allow us to relocate wherever we want. I need to get back to the mountains, people. And I need a writing room, an art studio, a huge garden, and views of a valley. Any valley. And I want chickens and bees again. And enough security to know that no one can make me leave it unless it's my choice. Time to change my stars. Peace to all my cool cats and glitter kittens! Take care of each other out there.
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About two weeks ago I googled "writing associations in North Carolina" and FINALLY hit something--the North Carolina Writer's Network (NCWN) is a nonprofit association for writers based in North Carolina and they are BUSY. Their website (NCWriters.org) is packed with all kinds of activities and help for authors, and I saw they were having a fall conference--this past weekend! I was too late to sign up for any masterclasses and I was too late for the conference room rate, but it was only two nights, so I didn't worry about that and booked it anyway after signing up to go. Charlotte is only 3.5 hours from the house, so I knew that was no problem, we just had to figure out if anyone was coming with me. Charley could take off Friday, the girls were ready to see something different, our trusty cat sitters were engaged, and so we were all set. THE CONFERENCE Oh my goooddddddd..... this writing conference, even only being two quick days, was so incredibly different than every other writing conference I'd ever been to, my head was exploding after the first class. The sessions were 90 minutes instead of just shy of an hour, and they were taught by professors and faculty from creative writing programs from local universities! WRITING TEACHERS. WHAT. Every other conference I've ever been to have been taught by either really popular authors (trad or indie), really successful indie authors, people who are known for the author organization systems, or those in the industry with a system or product to sell to indie authors. All of that is tremendously helpful, don't get me wrong, BUT to find a collection of teachers in one conference who are actually teaching ABOUT WRITING was magical. I felt like my ancient English literature degree was waking from a sleeping curse. I had a list of things to look up in my spare moments: braided essays, the "pantoum" poetry structure, and "naive narrator." Not to mention the seven values of Buddhism, more on writing memoir, and from the one session I took from a social media entrepreneur... I had so many ideas for my own branding, I was writing that down when I should have been taking notes on what she was saying! The speakers and panels were amazing. Journalist turned author Tommy Tomlinson was Friday night, the Saturday morning panel was Patrice Gopo, Jay Ward, and Kimmery Martin. There was a panel on Sunday morning of agents and editors, but I have to confess I didn't pay attention to that because I will never, ever, ever even consider traditional publishing. So I used that time to get some notes together from the day before. My courses, for the record: 1. Objects May be Closer: Activating Story Settings, with Bryn Chancellor 2. Greater than the Sum of the Parts, with Patrice Gopo 3. Making Messes: How Character & Plot Thrive on Mistakes, with Amber Wheeler Bacon 4. We Know Your Why, Tell Your WHO, with Jennifer Moxley 5. Write Your Values, with Misha Lazzara I'm busy today getting all of my notes into my Notion, but I'm trying to be better at updating this website, even though no one's coming here yet! BUT -- that okay. I am starting and getting shit down so it's here for the future, and that's all that matters. I also have some exercises from this weekend some of the instructors suggested and they're all amazing, so I need to get to those too. One thing I did get to do before the conference started was go to the MacTabby Cat Cafe!!! They had two slots available when we were there, so the girls went in the cat room to play with the 12 kittehs in there while I enjoyed my amazing latte and took photos of all of the art and cat things in the cafe. All of the kitties are available for adoption, and there was one young man there who had come by himself to play with the cats, just because he loves cats. He said he'd been wanting to get one for a while, and when I told him they were available for adoption, his whole attitude changed. He perked up and went and looked through the windows... then waited until he could go inside. I hope he found a friend. We went to Curio after, which was an awesome little juju magic bullshit store (MY FAVORITE) and I found a great little book on being a witch I didn't have by Julia Diaz: Witchery: Embrace the Witch Within, because I'm definitely needing to tap into something to get through this next year, and why not do it with some rockin' candles, herbs, delicious tea, and a new-found relationship with the natural world around me? |
Hello, 2023!Cynthia Moyer here... I have written and published six novels, but it feels like that was a lifetime ago. But all of that changes now. Buckle up.
Where have I been anyway?In 2019, we bought a farm. Then COVID happened. Then farm chores kicked in and it seemed like I never got back to the computer. All of my editing work went toward the farm, and I loved everything about my Rosemary Hill. Archives
February 2024
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