What's Up Wednesday - Birthday Edition!

I'm back for What's Up Wednesday, a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow. Here's what I've been up to this past week!


What I'm reading

I finally got my hands on the last Skulduggery Pleasant book, The Dying of the Light - and as I preordered it from Waterstones, I got a signed limited edition copy! *dances* And I loved it, of course! The SP series is one of the best MG/YA crossover series I've read - the books are pure fun, packed with great characters, snappy dialogue and gripping action. I'm so sad it's over! *sobs*

I also read Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise! It offers a unique take on witches/parallel universes unlike anything I've read in YA before, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Recommended!

What I'm writing

Shiny New WIP! ^_^ Oh, this book... Well, I wrote 24K last week... and on Monday, I typed 7000 words in a day. o.O That's... wow. Not normal for me. But I like it! :D I'm now almost at 70K, so I should finish this week! And then I'm going to try to revise the draft before the end of the month (using the YA Buccaneers Fall Writing Bootcamp for inspiration - I listed my goals here!). And then it's off to betas. And then... hopefully Book 2 for NaNoWriMo! (I've spent the past two months writing in-depth outlines for the whole 6-book series, so in theory, I should be ready to dive in, if my laptop hasn't burst into flames by then. :P)

What inspires me

Well, it's my birthday today, which naturally means an existential crisis... but at the same time, I'm pleased with some of the things I've accomplished over the past year! I set up a freelance editing/proofreading business, which has gone better than I dared hope. I finished the Darkworld series. I published Darkness Watching. I've written FIVE drafts in a year and got two of them up to a submittable standard... while battling adversity at every turn (I have battle scars, man. Publishing...). But I was also offered contracts not only for the other four Darkworld books but also for a prequel novella! And I went to YA Lit Con. As for the next year? Well, I dropped a (probably) significant hint during last Wednesday's WUW/IWSG post. It'll be a while yet before I have anything official to say about my plan for Shiny New Series... but I'm excited!

What else I've been up to

Doing freelance work and making Secret Plans. And today, it's my birthday! I'm 23, so like a real adult, I'm spending the day at the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour in London with my boyfriend. WOO!

I'm also running a giveaway! Two e-copies of Darkness Watching are up for grabs! :D

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