Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Blog Hop: Reading Timeline

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  How long does it take you to finish a book?

This varies wildly depending on the book–both its length, and how much I enjoy it!  I used to go through books very quickly.  Even a longish book (say, 400 pages) would be finished in about three days.  My pace has slowed dramatically with life changing.  I don’t have as much built-in reading time in my schedule anymore, and (perhaps because it used to be built in) I don’t tend to think of reading when I have free space and am thinking of what to do (I more often write or blog).

I’m probably averaging something like a book a week now, for what I would consider my “proper” book that I’m reading–the paper one that I read over meals and when I feel like picking something up.  I read nonfiction for two hours a week, and could spend a few weeks on one, or finish it in just that time, depending on the length (which probably varies even more for nonfiction than fiction).  I also listen to an audiobook whenever I’m in the car, and probably get through most audiobooks in a week or two.  And I have a book just to read before bed–when I was reading L. M. Montgomery’s journals, it would take months to get through a volume.  Now that I’m reading her short stories, it’s a bit faster.

If I’m particularly enjoying a book, I’m more likely to pick it up more often and therefore I finish it faster.  If it’s just okay, I can get bogged down for weeks.  There is a definite and unfortunate irony at play there…

I always feel I’d like to read more and finish more books faster, but I suspect that feeling is shared by most readers!

Writing Wednesday: Cover Design

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

Despite finishing up this round of revisions for Guardian III, I’ve still been deep into the trilogy so far this week.  I’ve made some minor edits to Guardian I and II, but also got rather distracted from more pressing matters by a sudden desire to play with cover art.  I’m working on coordinating covers for the three books–and happily, some time ago I found available stock photos of a ballet dancer who looked like Meg to me.  Photo shoots with multiple images of the same model are the best when dealing with covers for a series.

Cover reveals are a long way off,  but here’s a glimpse…a closer view than the one that’s been lurking in my blog header for quite a while now!  I like her expression a lot–though I had to do some Photoshop magic to hide a tattoo on the model’s arm.  Not very 1881, that detail!

Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat: Sunday

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

We’re all home from the 4th Annual Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat, and back to our regular days.  Our last day, Sunday, was a much shorter day, finishing up by 11 am, but still a nice end to the weekend retreat.

We only did a brief workshop, looking at some writing resources to help with dynamic description and writing in a more active style, and discussed how to structure a book bible.

We had some free write time as well–I’d finished my work (for now) on Guardian III, so I launched right into what I dearly hope will be the final final edits for Guardian I.  This was much less intense than the work needed for Guardian III–I had a print-out of the draft with minor edits already noted on it, and just needed to go through to implement in the digital file.  By the end of the day, I got through about about a third of the novel, so that was a solid amount of progress on that as well…some of it done on retreat, and some of it done after I got home.  Because obviously, when you get home from a writing retreat and have a spare hour, the thing to do is more writing! 🙂

Day Three Writing
Blog posts written: 1
Pages of Guardian I edited: 90

Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat: Saturday

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

We closed out Day Two the 4th Annual Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat, and just have a few hours left now!  Our second day, Saturday, was equally awesome, and I was happy to get more writing in.

Our focus on Saturday was on plot.  We went over common plot structures and how they compare (there are some pretty good parallels in the Hero’s Journey and the traditional Romantic plotline!)  We then used that structure to group-plot a book about Lola, yesterday’s character.  It was a pretty freeform, idea-tossing conversation that got the entire book plotted in a couple of hours.  It was pretty amazing–and you know you’re in a good point with writing when the sentence “so then the parkour group mobilizes with the coven to fight the vampires” makes complete sense. 🙂

We also finished The Fellowship of the Ring, compared the plot to the Hero’s Journey structure, and had some solid discussion on the really brilliant things both Tolkien and the filmmakers did in all the tiny details of that movie.

Outside of workshopping, I had a solid day in revising–I got through the end of Guardian III (!) per my retreat goal, went back to weave in references to a special performance I decided on at the end (mostly to satisfy my own need for a correct timeline, and otherwise why was there a performance on a Tuesday?  Conundrums), plus a couple other notes resolved to call this pass done.  I even resolved a note I’ve had in here since November of 2013, finally figuring out how to clarify something I’d left unsaid all this time.  So that is super exciting on so many levels!

And we still have about four and a half hours of retreating left…

Day Two Writing
Blog posts written: 1
Pages of Guardian III revised: 45

Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat: Friday

On By cherylmahoneyIn Writing1 Comment

It’s relatively the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, and I thought I’d do an update on the first day of the 4th Annual Stonehenge Circle Writers Retreat.

A few people came Thursday night, but I arrived Friday morning and we kicked things off officially at 10 am.  We spent the day primarily discussing character creation.  In what was basically a writing jam session, we tossed ideas around to create a character as a group, using some character-building tools and online personality tests.

We ended up with Lola, a trash-talking chef who does parkour in her free time, who is slow to trust others because she was betrayed by her previous boss/mentor.  She has a buzzcut and is very buff from her parkour exercise, and has some insecurities about not being the conventional female standard of beauty.  Deep-down, she wants a long-term romantic relationship but doesn’t think she’ll find anyone, so she uses Tinder or the equivalent to casually date a lot of equally buff women.  Over the course of the book we may or may not group-write, she falls in love with a vegan ballerina.  She has complicated feelings with her large Hispanic, conservative Catholic family, and as a kind of guilty pleasure she likes Austen movies and pork rinds.

But believe me, that summary just scratches the surface!  By the end of the day, we all felt that we knew Lola personally, and she might show up at the door, possibly with Charlie the ballerina. 🙂

As a pre-start to our plotting workshops planned for today (Saturday), we watched the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring, with discussion on the plot and character threads set up at the beginning of the movie that carry through the trilogy.  We also wound up observing just how much Tolkien there is in Harry Potter! (Ring wraiths/dementors, Sauron bound to the ring/horcruxes, and of course, wizard mentors with large beards…)

Outside of workshopping, we did some free write time…although the retreat house also has a pool and a hot tub that had a nice view of the full moon, so we may have been slightly distracted by that too!  All in all, a full day and nice kick-off to the retreat.

Day One Writing
Blog posts written: 2
Pages of Guardian III revised: 21