Rachel K. A's Blog

I joined Instagram and Threads yesterday. For me, this is a BIG step.

It was fine being on only the wonderful, & small but perfectly formed Counter Social (no algorithms, folks) pre being an actual (independently) published author, but now I feel I have to join the more mainstream platforms to try and widen reach.

I’d actually joined Insta last year when I Independently published Grey Feather, but chickened out and left after only 24 hours.

My social media life is spotty. I was on the one with a cute bird for many years, but left when the guy who designs ugly electric cars (sorry if you have one of those ugly electric cars) shoehorned his way in.

And after running like a scaredy cat away from the Gram, I joined Bluesky and am finding my feet there. I also joined GoodReads, but I’m not sure my author page is helping, it’s nice tracking my reads, though, Then, I have never been on the book with a face because I don’t like that owner either, and I do like to vote with my feet. Now though, I’ve joined two of his because still trying to promote my book *sigh*

All one of you might think, ‘What’s the problem? It’s just social media. Don’t over think it.’

Over thinker is one (or two) of my middle names, and it really kicks in with this sort of thing. I know I am trying to create a presence for my work, but I think to myself ‘don’t post too much book stuff/use too many hashtags/ repost too much.

And yes, I think all of these things when I have no followers to bother! And as for the posting… if I say I actually post only 10% of the stuff I write, I would not be exaggerating, my over thinking/self censoring is off the scale.

Long term though, I do want to strike a balance between author stuff and life stuff, so there will hopefully be book stuff, then Coco stuff, and food stuff, I don’t want to just be plugging Grey Feather, I also want to post pics of my cat, and waffle on about food. See what I did there?!

So this time, I’m sticking with it. It will be slow and steady, but there will be no outing of the chicken.

Until next week

I’ve decided to publish other writings as I have a few hiding in a folder on my laptop, which means pausing the follow up to Grey Feather for a little while.

I’ve gone straight to my first foray into long fiction, called Predictable. Predictable was the working title, but I think it fits.

A little segue first… when I needed a cover for Grey Feather I looked online for folks that did covers and drilling down, all of those I checked out used A.I.

Surely, I can do that? I thought. I’d had no previous dealings with A.I so I joined one that I’d heard mentioned.

I had a clear idea with Grey Feather, I wanted an ethereal grey cover and an ethereal grey feather, so that was simple.

Fast forward to Predictable, and I had no clear idea, not a clue. So… I went back to the A.I and gave a brief description.

To say I was gobsmacked at the result (with a couple of small tweaks) is an understatement. There are three women — a red head, a blonde, and a brunette— who are close to the main character but I didn’t divulge hair colours, I just said ‘sister, sister’s friend, sister’s friend’s mum’, (initially I said ‘family’ & it gave me a mum and a child) and A.I managed to have the three with the hair that matches my story. The story is not on the device on which I write, so A.I hadn’t been peeking, either! There were many more similarities obviously, or I wouldn’t have been gobsmacked and the cover image wouldn’t be pretty much ready to go, but you’ll have to wait until I publish to see!

Now I’m thinking that children’s series I’ve wanted to write for so long is doable at least in the first instance. I would probably need to go down the traditional publishing route with the series, but I can’t draw and that’s held me back. Now perhaps, A.I can help with the graphics in the initially to give a better idea to anyone I submit to.

I am for the most part, very cautious about A.I, but I might have found one use (and one use only) for it that I’m happy with.

Until next week

It doesn’t matter how many drafts of a writing I complete, I still find changes that can be made.

Would paying an editor be the way to go?

Then the over thinker in me overthinks, and I recall books I’ve read that contained errors, and were probably edited professionally.

If money wasn’t an issue, I would probably like the benefit of a professional casting their glance over my work, but I’m determined not to get into debt with my writing, and as I make the princely sum of 28p on each paperback version of Grey Feather sold at the current price, I’m not going to be swimming in money any time soon!

So I will draft, draft, and draft again and one day I will be happy that I’ve reached the end the editing process.

Until next week

It’s not about validation.

It’s knowing that the reader gets you, gets how your weird mind works.

And which epic tome am I referring to?

It’s not a tome, epic or otherwise.

It’s not a book.

It’s not an essay.

It’s not even a letter.

It’s a message on your phone containing a couple of sentences from someone who likes the words you arranged in a particular order. From someone who doesn’t have to let you know, but does.

That’s all.

But it’s everything.

Until next week

I’m late this eeek. Okay… that was supposed to be ‘week’ but I felt the typo was fitting.

I work from home and I write in between, which means I don’t have to venture past my front door often, but this eeek has been a week.

I had to leave my home so often my head was spinning, culminating in a two and a half hour bus ride each way on Thursday.

The bus ride wasn’t so bad, but the vehicles were definitely bone shakers, and the ride home was freezing. The driver coughed and spluttered during the entire journey, so I’m assuming he was being kind and expelling his germs, but March in Blighty is not open window weather.

I would like to have written something to while away those hours, but my slightly obsessive compulsive tendencies manifest in me using the same device for the job, and I wasn’t going to cart my laptop on the bus. If I had decided to cart said laptop on bone shaker, it would have been impossible to type, I could barely smash out a text. I think my husband must’ve thought I was writing in a new unidentifiable language.

In lieu of writing, I listened to my audio book. I remembered my headphones and my phone, which was impressive considering I left my bottle of water and sandwich on the kitchen peninsula, and this is where another of my foibles kicks in…

I didn’t think to download another audio book, and I needed another almost as soon as I parked my backside on the bus for the journey home.

“No problem!” I hear all three of you exclaim.

Problem.

When I leave the house my very smart phone becomes a dumb phone. Because I WFH, I do not have a fancy contract. I have PAYG, and spend about £20 per year on credit. This setup is not conducive to being able to find and download a new book. This is my burden to bear though, so I listened to a finished book that was still loaded and was able to let my mind wander into thinking about the writing in my near future, so I suppose it worked out.

Until next week

Okay, so I’ve started writing again… well I’m doing a read through of the first 50k of Grey Feather / Blue Pearl to continue writing when I’m done. But then I paused because…

I thought I should perhaps think about publishing other novels I’ve written that are in a different genre, but are at third or fourth draft stage. So started a listen through of the first novel I wrote that’s still hiding in my computer.

A little segue… has anyone done the ‘listen through’? It’s a facility in a well known mi cro soft wp programme and has been valuable to me. Okay, it sometimes causes an eye roll due to pronunciation —as a Brit we use an S instead of a Z in a lot of words, which prompts the ‘reader’ to pronounce for example, summarise as summereeze— but I’m picking up minor errors that were missed on ALL previous drafts!

Back to the main topic… Maybe I should split my time between the two, but a ‘listen’ through alongside a ‘read’ through of a different work doesn’t feel compatible. I would love to know how other writers work. Is it linear? One at a time from draft to publish? Or dipping and diving into different works?

Perhaps I finish the read through of the first 50k, then the new content can occupy my mind but with breaks to continue with listen through…

There… clear as mud!

Until next week 

If you do, how do you review a book you’ve read? I don’t mean the medium but the general philosophy.

As a reader I was never a reviewer. I always thought that the mere fact that I bought entire series —I’ve read every Hollows Series book to date by Kim Harrison, almost every Bosch Series novel to date— surely that would show that I love them?

Now as a writer I find I want to review… but this is where the over-thinker who’s always there just underneath the surface kicks in. I don’t want to spoil the story for others, and I also don’t want to be negative about the writing or the content because it would be just my opinion.

I know that creating something akin to a novel is very much a labour of love so how could I then go and dismiss or criticise someone’s work —and I don’t think that ‘not liking a book’ is worthy of a negative comment because it’s so subjective— I always try to avoid saying something is ‘rubbish’ because subjective, it can be fantastic, just not to my taste. I feel the same way about music.

So… In short, I can’t be negative about someone’s wordy baby, which means I’ll concentrate on the aspects I do like and appreciate whilst ignoring the rest.

Until next week

I’m struggling to write at the moment.

The November intensive writing helped take my mind off losing Ember, and as normal— I stowed the laptop away with every intention of opening it to start writing again after New Year.

That’s where my plan failed, and it’s now March.

I did start a read through of the 50k that I wrote in November, and added a few lines to a short story whilst I thought of them, but other than that, nothing.

I know the block is Ember related, and at some point I’ll —in the words of Cordelia Chase— spank my inner moppet and get back to it.

In the meantime I’ll try not to stress about my lack of discipline.

Until next week

I’d forgotten all about this poem, it was hidden amongst my notes. A tad basic, I know— but I was pleased with it.

She sits by the window, and looks out to sea, watching, waiting, for the one she can’t see

He sits at the table, drinking his tea, thinking, longing, for the love he won’t see.

She sits by the fireside, strokingthe cat on her lap, wishing, wanting, her love to fill the gap.

He stands by the bridge, manning his post, aching, hurting, for the thing he wants most.

She leans by the door, wringing her hands, breathless, nervous, as she waits for her man.

They stand at the door, letter in hand, stoic, resigned, with news of her man.

As she reaches for the door, she smiles, unaware, that when she lets in the day, her grief will lay bare.

Rachel K.A, 2016

Again, I would love to know if this is just me, but if I’m writing about the home of a character, I sneak on to a homes for sale website and peruse the dwellings for inspiration. When I find the home that hits the spot, it stays in my browser for reference until the draft is complete.

As Grey Feather was started a few NaNoWriMos ago and published last year, in between I drafted Under the Diamonds. UtD had around four dwellings and is based in the U.S, so I spent a lot of time on the websites that advertised homes for sale —I have always thought that looking around homes is one of the biggest perks of the internet— to imprint the homes in my mind.

I also follow a similar path if there’s a venue involved, but just search the internet for current venues, and at the beginning of UtD a character was behaving out of character and day drinking in a bar, so I needed a bar in Portland, Oregon that had outside space, which was probably as rare as hens teeth. I searched a while, until I found a place with the cutest higgledy piggledy outside space which looked as if parts of it were pinched from nearby properties to create a courtyard. The courtyard that was the footprint of the space had at least one wall that was a party wall, and it was decorated with huge brightly coloured painted diamonds, I won’t give you too many guesses as to where the character was sitting during their day drinking.

I spent a lot of time looking at a few images of the bar on a website that customers had posted, and by the time that draft was finished, this bar held a special place in my heart.

Fast forward to 2024 and I visited Portland to see family, and was taken to the bar. To say I was excited is an understatement, I would be able to sit under the diamonds! Life would imitate art, minus the shots of JD.

We parked up and entered, but the inside was a different layout to my vision. Perspective can be a funny thing. We headed straight to the outside space, with me possibly holding my breath in anticipation until I was able to stare straight at that wall that was so close to my heart, so close that it ended up as the main focus of the title of the story…

They’d only gone an painted over the flippin’ diamonds

Those diamonds will though, live forever in my story and my heart.

Until next week