February 3, 2015

Draft 3 of THE BADLINGS is done!

The trip to Spokane has distracted me from blogging about this. Are you ready? Here we go.

DRAFT 3 OF THE BADLINGS IS DONE!!!

This is such a fun book to write, at times I feel guilty. Instead of crying every day like I did when writing IRKADURA, I'm giggling and sniggering and laughing. Due to the copyright I had to cut down the number of books the badlings jump in and out of down to 10. The title has changed from CORNERS to THE BADLINGS as it doesn't fit the story anymore. Below is the first chapter. I'm taking two weeks off and starting Draft 4 on February 16th. Wish me luck.

January 13, 2015

CORNERS is now THE BADLINGS!!! Or, fit the title to the book.

by Ksenia Anske

It started out innocently enough. I wanted to write a book that would take me on a wild romp of stories I grew up with. "What could be wrong with that?" I thought. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing could go wrong." Somewhere in the back of my mind a little inimical worm sourly whispered words of caution. I ignored him. Smart, very smart. Two drafts into the book by the curious name of CORNERS (the plot revolved around 4 kids turning corners of pages and dropping in and out of 30 books) I have lost my old editor to a year off-work and landed a new editor who immediately made her first significant investment in my glorious writerly future. "Have you checked the copyright?" she asked. I was struck with a hot iron right in my face.

"I haven't," I thought with horror.

December 20, 2014

The 2nd draft of CORNERS is done!

by Ksenia Anske

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my readers who encouraged me, to all my beta readers who sent me feedback on the 1st draft, my friends and family who left me alone to write it. Without you this wouldn't have happened. The 1st draft took me only 2 weeks to write, this one took 1 month. I have done something different this time. I didn't take weekends off, plowing right through them, and it sped up the process.

November 26, 2014

CORNERS excerpt, Draft 2

by Ksenia Anske

And...I have started. On Draft 2. I took a 1.5 month break between drafts this time, a bit too long. Maybe it's a good thing? We shall see. So far I'm having so much fun writing this, I find myself feeling guilty sometimes. I think this book will be glorious. I'm laughing almost on every page, writing it. I hope you will laugh too. Here is the excerpt for you, THE WHOLE FIRST CHAPTER.

CORNERS

A novel by Ksenia Anske, Draft 2

Chapter 1. The First Corner

It was a dangerous business, turning corners, especially corners with numbers. In exactly twelve minutes Bells would find a paper corner sticking out of the dirt by the old duck pond. In another minute she’d see number sixty-eight printed on it, lift it and get sucked into a book, together with her unsuspecting friends Peacock, Grand, and Rusty. The only things left behind them would be their four bikes, a gum wrapper, and a couple backpacks.

November 8, 2014

IRKADURA is published!!!

by Ksenia Anske

It happened! It did! It did! So many months of pain, so many rewrites, so much fretting over the cover, and finally it's here! It's been how long? I started writing it on January 2nd of this year, so it's been 10 months from start to finish, a little faster than ROSEHEAD. Boy, am I glad I'm done with this. It made me go back to my Soviet past and stir it up, and it was not a pleasant experience, but those of you who have already read it tell me that you love it. I'm so glad! You can find free ebook files here and, of course, it's on all the other places too, like Amazon and iBooks and Barnes & Noble and Wattpad and more. Now, as is my tradition, here is the 1st chapter.

IRKADURA

A novel by Ksenia Anske

CORNERS

IRKADURA

CHAPTER 1. MOUSE