editing – Sydney Aaliyah Michelle

My Monthly Update – I can’t believe it!

Published on November 30, 2014 by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle2 Comments

It’s already December 2014. I can’t believe it. This year flew by. I’ve been a published author for six months and it has been a world wind and I don’t see it slowing down. I have one month to finish some projects, and plan for more, but I’m super excited about 2015.

Events

December 8th, 2014 – Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2) Release Day Blitz. If you want to help me promote my release, please sign up here.

Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2) Release Day Blitz Sign Up

Each blog participating has the chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

December 13th, 2014 – Santa Facebook Hop – more details to come.

December 15th, 2014 – Love Addiction Anthology Release Day Blitz & Party.

Come hang out with us and celebrate 8 moving stories of love and lust to melt away the winter blues.

December Goals

Complete Publication schedule for 2015.

Complete marketing/publishing budget for 2015.

7,129 words on Hope for Us

11,432 words on A New Season

Sydney Quotes the Movies

I wasn’t sure if it was because of Chris Nolan or Matthew McConaughey or because it was a movie about outer space, but I thought it was all around brilliant. Plus, it had a lot of great quotes and it made me think. I love that in a movie.

“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

“Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”

“Murphy’s law doesn’t mean that something bad will happen. It means that whatever can happen, will happen.”

“Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends time and space.”

“I have a cue light I can use to show you when I’m joking, if you like.”

Movie watching List for December:

The Hobbit – Third and final. What am I going to do next year with no Hobbits?

American Sniper – True story and Bradley Copper.

Exodus – It’s Ridley Scott and epic movie making. The sea parting scene is reason enough to go see it.

What are your big plans for 2015? Have you seen Interstellar? What do you want for Christmas?

Have a great December, everyone!

My Monthly Update – Better Late … and SQM

Published on October 6, 2014October 5, 2014 by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle1 Comment

Release Month

Hope for Her (Hope Series Book #1) was released on October 1st and it had a great release day, and 5 days later, it is still in the top 100 in African American Romance. I also received some great feed back from readers. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“Speechless, Mouth open, shaking my head, laughing, crying, smiling.”

“This book touched my heart, made it ached, and ripped it right out.”

One reader even declared Hope for Her, her favorite book this year. Considering it’s October, I thought that was pretty cool. haha.

Hope for Her will be .99 cents for another 10 days!

Events

October 6, 2014 (Tonight) from 4:00 – 8:00 pm CST, I will be taking over at the United Indie Book Blog on Facebook. Lots of great giveaways and I will share some exclusive excerpts from Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2). Come and join me.

October 9th, 2014 from 4:00 – 8:00 pm CST – The New Adult Street will be taking over at the Twin Sisters Rockin’ Book Reviews on Facebook.

October 30, 2014 from 10:00 am – 10:00 pm CST – Trick me or Treat me? Romance Book Lovers Halloween Party. Join The New Adult Street Team for great giveaways and fun halloween activities. Costumes optional.

October Goals

Edits for Hope for Him (Hope Series Book #2) are due to my editor no later then October 15th.

The final 30,000 words on Hope for Us (Hope Series Book #3) due on November 1st.

Prep for NaNoWriMo – I am thinking about the first book in a two book series. The tentative titles – A New Season (Season Series Book #1) & Off Season (Season Series Book #2)

Guess what, the book is about a girl and a football player. Big surprise.

Sydney Quotes the Movies

Classic Denzel Washington and another good director outing for Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, anyone!!)

Some of my favorite lines perfectly delivered by Mr. Washington:

“Change your world.” His advice to a troubled young lady.

“Old man got to be the old man. Fish got to be a fish.” His take on the classic novel, The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway.

“Hit it on something stupid.” As to why he had cuts and bruises on his knuckles.

“When you pray for the rain, you have to deal with the mud, too.” Great advice to anyone.

“Progress, Not Perfection.” Advice to his coworker.

Loved this movie.

Have you seen the The Equalizer? What was your favorite part? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo next month?

Have a great October, everyone!

Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Published on February 4, 2014February 5, 2014 by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle26 Comments

This month’s co-hosts are Sheena-kay Graham, Julie Musil, Jamie Ayres, and Mike Swift. Please be sure to thank them for their time and effort to make all IWSG members feel welcome.

Let me set the scene. It’s 5:30 pm and I’ve finished my day job. In front of me, I have following task:

Quick read through and edit of a couple of chapters to send to my critique partners.
Revisions on two chapters to stick to my goal of finishing edits on this WIP by mid-Feb.
Write the first paragraph to a new MS for my Creative Workshop.

Which ‘free flowing, creative and something out of nothing’ task filled my heart with bliss.
Which ‘nit picky, mind numbing, never know if I’m doing it right’ task filled my brain with resentment.

Really, why can’t I get paid to create first drafts.

Because that’s ridiculous, but it makes me wonder, does anyone enjoy the editing process? If so, how did you get to that point?

Insecure Writer’s Support Group – Ups and Downs

Published on October 2, 2013 by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle24 Comments

I can’t believe it’s already October. Where has this year gone? Before I get into my insecurities for this month, I wanted to give a shout out and congrats to our fearless IWSG leader, Alex Cavanaugh. If you haven’t read his Cassa series cumulating with CassaStorm, which was released last month, you are missing out.

Thanks to the #IWSG co-hosts this months, Julie Luek, Rachna Chabria, Beverly Fox, and Ilima Todd! Please be sure to thank them for their time and effort to make all IWSG members feel welcome.

#IWSG – The ups and downs are inevitable in this journey. It is like life I guess, some days the words are flowing, the goals are being met, your on top of things. Other times, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the weight of it all.

September was a particularly unstable month for me. Here are some of the highlights:

I started the month on a four day solo writing retreat to The Hill Country near Lake Travis (North of Austin, Tx). – UP

The hotel I stayed at was a hole. – DOWN

I found an amazing spot to gets some work done and finished edits on my WIP. – UP

I sent my WIP out to some amazing people who agreed to beta read it for me. – UP

I started my own read through and found so many grammar issues, I recalled it from all the beta’s. – DOWN

I thought I had found a new critique group with two ladies who write in my genre. – UP and super excited to have some feedback from fans and writers of NA.

After emailing them my WIP, they decided I wasn’t right for their group after all. – WAY DOWN and a little defeated.

I submitted my query letter to Unicorn Bell Query Workshop and received the most amazing feedback and suggestions and from that I created a query letter that I am so proud of. – WAY UP and renewed my faith in this amazing writing community.

I pitched my story during #PitMad and got two partials and a full request, one from my dream agent. – UP

I sent a query letter to another dream agent and got a partial request based on just the query letter. – WAY UP

I am still editing my WIP because every time I read through it I find something that needs to be improved. – UP & DOWN

How do you deal with the ups and downs of being a writer?

My Weekly Update – Edits, Please.

Published on March 3, 2013March 2, 2013 by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle9 Comments

I’m a Minnion

Thanks to Nicole from The Madlab Post for choosing me to be one of her minions.

I am on a staff with Sheila Siler, Tami Van Zalez and M.J. Joachim. A talented, smart and fun group to be a part of and we will do Nicole proud.

Have you signed up for the A to Z Challenge? For more information, read this.

Still trying to figure out a theme, read this.

Third Week Of Edits

In order to stay up to date on my edits, I have a number of accountabilities (that’s a word) in place.

the writers dojo – As a part of NiNoReMo group, I have set a goal to edit 12 chapters in the month of March. Ali cross and the rest of the group are super supportive and I don’t want to let them down.
Beta readers – I am sending chapters to my beta readers as soon as I finish editing them and it’s a good sign when my beta’s are calling me to send more chapters. They are breathless with anticipation (anyone know where that quote comes from?). And, one of my beta’s said, I can’t wait to see if the main characters get together, but she picked the wrong two main characters, so she is going to be in for a surprise. That’s what I hope every reading my book when they read it. I suck them in and then turn the tables on it. hahahahaha(evil laugh).
DFW Writer’s Conference – I want my beta’s to finish reading so I can have all edits done and ready to go for the conference in May. All those agents out there are just waiting to read my manuscript. 😉

Do you work better when you’re held accountable or are you one of those internally motivated people (~~hate envy~~ proud of those people)?

Post to Ponder – Edit Edition

Chapter Edits – A Quick Overview by Raewyn Hewitt – If you’re new to editing and not sure where to start, follow these steps. It will get you far.

Four Situations When We Should Tell Rather than Show by Marcy Kennedy – I know this sounds blasphemous, but read it. It makes so much sense.

Close Edits: What I Look Out For by Tara Tyler – Great list of edits to look for.

My Favorite Blog of the Week

Rejection Love Letters – John Tompkins is a writer who has turn rejection into triumph. Ok, maybe not triumph, but he certainly has the right attitude. I have been LOL’ing over his sight all week. He turns his rejection letters into love letter.

New Followers

Next Week’s Schedule

Tuesday – Tattoo Tuesday – calling all tattoo’ed writers

Wednesday – SQM Silver Lining Playbook

Friday – The Only Exception Blog Tour

Sunday – My Weekly Update