Tag: how to be an author

Williamsburg Book Festival 2022 Appearance!

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

Come see me at the Williamsburg Book Festival in Williamsburg, VA on October 1! I’ll have an outdoor booth and, depending on the weather forecast, maybe a DOG WITH ME!!! Come see a dog! If I can have a dog with me, weather permitting, it will likely be Aggie The Fierce Rottweiler, the cover dog of First Watch! Maybe she’ll even paw-tograph your copy of First Watch that you buy at the Williamsburg Book Festival!?!!

No promises. Many possibilities. You’ll have to attend to find out!

2022 BOOK FESTIVAL

Blueberry harvest is in full swing!

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

Here in zone 8 my blueberry shrubs are loaded with fruit! I have five different shrubs, each a different variety of blueberry and they’re all ripening at different rates! I couldn’t have planned it better. Each morning and evening I pull in a handful or two of delicious berries. Looking at the shrubs I’ll manage this for another month at least!! Delightful.

On To the Next!

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

I’m happy to announce that I’ve started drafting the third book in the Civil Dusk series already! In this story, tentatively called “By Appointment Only,” Hugh meets with the spirits of Skara Brae to get his dian-stane fixed. They tell him to journey to New Hampshire in the USA, where descendants of theirs journeyed and built a settlement 4000 years ago. But how will he find it in a country to which he’s never been? Perhaps a local guide can assist!

Stay tuned for a completely unique story that’s already a page-turner! And in the meantime, get your copies of Civil Dusk and First Watch; links in the Buy My Books link above!

FIRST WATCH!!!!! (DOG PIC!!!!!!!!!)

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

Honestly, I know you’re more excited about the second one. 😛

HEY READERS!!!!!!

First Watch is in the hands of my beta reader and my fact-checker! Editing is DONE. Cover art is DONE. Back blurb is DONE. ISBN purchase is DONE. Here’s a teaser from Chapter 1 along with the Rottie that inspired those descriptions. Stay tuned for release info!!! Can you tell I’m excited? I’M EXCITED! Every time I read back through this document it’s so DAMN GOOD.

Brackets

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

When I’m writing, I commonly leave myself brackets around words that I either need to go back in the typed document to fact check, or that I need to find a synonym for. In the pictured case below, it’s a fact check. I hand write my drafts and my first line of editing is when I type my written sections up, usually a chapter at a time. Do you do this? If not, it might help! For me, it gives me permission to keep writing and not stall my progress with a word check.

First Watch update!

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

I am officially past the halfway marker in writing First Watch… I’ve got 21k words typed! My goal is around 40k like the first book in its series, Civil Dusk. Appropriately, the plot is coming to the big climax and I just drafted the big reveal. I’m so excited! Publishing goal for First Watch is Spring 2021.

Cooking up Style

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

Okay, we all know those ice breaker questions are stale and overdone. But I’ve come up with a new one that I reckon you, dear readers, should be able to dazzle. So: how would you describe your writing style, in terms of food prep?

Are you classic and traditional, like a steak dinner? Are you edgy and fresh, like a quinoa poke bowl with sriracha? (Foodies, is that spelled right?) Answer in the comments with description and bonus points if you put a picture with the food too! I need dinner ideas!

For me, I rather think I’m a Velveeta meal box with ground bison, served with a glass of cabernet sauvignon and followed by a cup of fresh ground coffee:

This is because my style is unassuming, yet surprisingly rustic and entertaining, made up of influences from other authors but uniquely my own. Plus, give it time and it gets poetic.

Signs You Might Be A Writer: PENS!

~ Nicole R. Ordway ~ Leave a comment

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1) You carry an extra pen just in case your current pen mysteriously dies.
2) You have a favorite pen and, let’s be honest, your other pens know which that is.
3) You’ve read the word “pen” too many times at this point and are wondering if it’s actually a real word.
4) You never ever lend your pens when someone asks for one, even if you currently have it in your hand and when they ask “do you have a pen I can borrow” you look them right in the eye and say “no.”
5) When you come across a nice pen in the wild (store, bank, etc) you steal it without the slightest bit of shame.
6) You own a Really Nice Pen that you intend to never ever write with, on account of how nice it is and you don’t want to spoil that by using it.
7) You’ve written with a quill just to see what it was like.
8) You’ve written with a fountain pen just to see what it was like.
9) You’ve been driven into a mad panic because you briefly misplaced your favorite pen and you’ll never write again despite the 15 extra pens you have waiting in reserve – and it’s fine because it was behind your ear or under your leg in the couch/chair the whole time, thank the Muse.
10) You’ve thrown away a pen with plenty of ink in it still because the little clip thing broke and who really has time for that in their lives.