#andileighwrites

I worked on poetry this morning (Aside from taking breaks on weekends, I’ve been writing a lot of daily poetry again. After finishing In Lonely Corners I took a month off from writing. Did editing though, haha).

Drink of choice this morning: iced earl grey tea latte.

My year-long poem-a-day collection is available as a paperback! Busy Like Blue Lavender: A Year in Verse contains 366 poems written over the course of 2024. This collection captures a year of my life and is something I can look back at and remember that I'm doing better than I was before.

All of the poems in the collection are individually available to read for free on my website. If you'd like a paperback version, you can visit the link above!

Over the weekend I had the sudden idea for a novel. The first piece of writing I published was a novella of around 25,000 words and over the course of 7 years, I have tried a couple of times to begin writing a novel. None of those projects went anywhere. I didn't have ideas for endings, or I had no idea what to put in the story, or I didn't feel anything made sense.

Well, for this idea that I got over the weekend, I had tons of character ideas and plot points in the story floating around in my head. I managed to write a complete outline for the novel from start to finish! I've never done that before but I actually accomplished a full outline.

I'm 5 days into the project. My goal is to finish the first draft in 50 days. 1,000 words a day. I'm pacing myself. I know if I go over my limit of 1,000 words in one day, I'll overwhelm myself and skip days on the project. That isn't going to happen but at the end of 50 days, I'll be able to call myself a novelist.

I'll probably share more details about the story when I'm further into writing it and I want to post frequent updates on the writing process. I will say that it is going to be queer literary fiction and be 2 stories, told from 3 different perspectives, and the two stories do tie in together. Thank you for reading my ramblings. More news will come in the future about the novel!

Today is day 26 of writing my first novel. I've been writing at least 1,000 words and day and some parts are a bit longer. The manuscript is at 28,547 words and the first draft is halfway done! I'm so happy with how it's turning out. I usually self-publish my books but for my first novel I thought why not try to find a literary agent? I'm going to try that out first and if nothing comes from it then I'll probably self-publish again. Not a big deal as I enjoy the process of self-publishing.

Hello hello! Happy New Year everyone!

It's 2023! Which means new projects are underway.

Burn the Felt Heart is coming to a close guys. The book is almost done. Remember, all poetry that will be in the paperback is available to read right here on the blog. The illustrations are done as well. I'm really happy with how the book is turning out and in a couple of weeks I'll be able to order the first proof copy. The release date is Feb 23, 2023! Exciting!