The Writing Journey (part 1) 📇

I have been writing for the last three years. The first year was just because I wanted to get my story down, so it still seemed like a hobby. However, I fell in love with it, so tons of research later on great writers, destroyed first drafts because I knew I sucked, and asking myself what the hell I thought I was doing, I finally decided to take it as a job and so the next two years consisted of me writing every single day, and working on various projects. I finished the third a few days ago and now have a monstrous stack of papers on my desk.

It’s paper porn; I look at it and tell myself that I’m not as lazy as I think, but unfortunately that joy only lasts for a few days before I have to put it away or start editing it because not doing anything with it makes me feel even more lazy. Did I mention that I finished that in about four weeks?Its about 90,000 words but don’t get impressed yet, read on.

I foresee a lot of digressions in this post and I don’t want to hit you with a novella on all that I’ve been through with writing so for today, I’ll just zoom in on a summary of the journey so far, and a few thoughts at the end.  I’ll zoom in on the writing process, editing and everything else in later posts.

Review: The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro 🎨

 I finally finished this book. *Phew* For a moment there I thought I wasn’t going to, and now that I am done with it, I have to say that I am glad that I did. Before I get into it, here’s the official blurb.

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.

My thoughts:

First of all, I went into this book completely blind. As i mentioned in my last review about the mason’s list, I had a romance genre hang over (whatever that means) and so decided to branch out into unknown waters. The Art Forger is an art novel, but it has some mystery in it which I just found out today when I read the last 30% of the book. (Thank you kindle for the gauges)…

Debut Novel Update! 🎬

Hello dear readers, today I bring you updates! *Drumroll*

It’s nothing terribly exciting, but I am happy to share. As is written everywhere on this site, my debut novel -The Beginning of Never- will be released on the 28th of April. Today I received the samples for the cover and was hopeful, because although it still isn’t evoking the tears of joy and awe that I want, I can say that it might very well get there because I was impressed. I sent it back for corrections and can’t wait to show you all. It should be officially released in the coming week.

Beyond the cover is the editing, which is coming along smoothly. I now have a fabulous editor who is ensuring that all looks and sounds well, but more on that later. Right now, I’m deeply involved in writing the sequel to the novel. I started it towards the end of last year but paused it briefly to focus on other more pressing engagements. But I’m back to it now and all I can say is that if you survive the self-doubt and roller coaster of emotions that come with writing a first draft, you can survive anything.

As Stephen King so aptly put it and I’m paraphrasing here, writing fiction, especially a long one is like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub. This is my all time favourite writing quote. It holds so much truth to it that every time I take my mind back to it, it encourages me. This sequel will be the third full length novel I’m writing, and I can tell you that the process still feels like I am indeed crossing the Atlantic in a bathtub. Although in my case, it feels more like I’m making the commute in a bucket. Still there are the highs and then there are the lows; the awe of the sunrise and the fright of the sunset. There is no doubt that it will be finished, after which a million edits will follow. Eventually, someone has to physically pry the book out of my hands so that I do not ruin it with my need to convince myself that it is everything but absolute rubbish. This my dear friends, is the cycle of my writing life.

On the matter of books written by other fabulous people, I am still contemplating my read for the week. After the Mason’s list, I want to delve into other waters. I picked up Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan but I’m still not over the Mason’s List so I don’t think I can stomach any more romances for the week. The Art Forger however, is something I stumbled into and it is so completely different from what I usually devour, that I am eager to see what it can do to me. So far, I have started it and will probably be able to come to you with a review by the weekend. The full expose on what my debut is about will also be released soon, and in it’s own shiny new page, so be on the look out for that. As always, feel free to comment or follow me on any of my other platforms. They’re all stationed on the sidebar. I just set up my professional Instagram and Facebook pages so feel free to pop in and like or follow. Would love to have you in my circles. Cheers, and thanks for reading. 🍺

Book Review: The Mason List

So, I have just spent the entire day reading “The Mason List” by S.D. Hendrickson and I am almost reluctant to write this post because I do not feel that I can do it justice in any way. This book was amazing; it was breathtaking and as my friend Uyi would say, it had just the right amount of everything.

It follows the life of Jess and Alex from age 8 to 26. How they fall in love and through all the hurdles that they go through. I don’t want to say anything else in case I spoil anyone reading that hasn’t gotten the book yet, but seriously, go get the book. Like right now.

I bought it almost a week ago but kept putting it off because it was so long but I finished a 120k plus book in one sitting, and only paused to take a phone call from my mom. With an attention span literally the length of a breath, it was nothing short of a miracle. I’m picky with books, I’ve mentioned that before, but this was worth every precious moment of my time.

And the writing was so fantastic that I felt jealous and impressed each time I turned a page. At first I wasn’t too impressed because she is a debut author and I expected the debut author writing, if that’s a thing. And it was present in the beginning but as she relaxed into the story, it became one of my all time favourite reads. So I celebrate this author who has taken a step out there and shared her work with the world. She inspired me to do the same about three weeks ago when I first heard about her, and so I wish her the very best.

In conclusion, I’m giving this book 4.5 star rating.

P:S this isn’t really a book blog but I will always share my thoughts on books I read. Hopefully they can inspire you to go pick up great books.