What's up Wednesday

What's up Wednesday is run by the lovely Jaime Morrow and her sister Erin L.Funk. You can check out their blogs by clicking their names. It's a really simple blog fest. Each week we answer the questions below and you get to learn a little about what we are up to. So, lets get started. 

1. WHAT I'M READING
2. WHAT I'M WRITING
3. WHAT INSPIRES ME, RIGHT NOW
4. WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

1) What am I reading 

Well, this week, I finished The 13th Floor-Complete Collection by Christine Rains. She is such an amazing author. I loved how the stories kind of merged together. It was very skillfully done. I also loved the twist that the Ghost Novella brought, as well as the Shadow's way of coming up and clearing up the whole idea of how these people all find their way to the 13th floor and become residents. I am really trying not to give too much away here. Can you tell? 

So, let me try and explain, for those who don't know, what the books are about, without giving away too much. 

Each book is based on a resident of the magic 13th floor of a building; a floor that not everyone can see. It plays cleverly on the whole idea that tall structures were often built without a 13th floor as it was deemed unlucky and so they would just leave a gap where it should be. Well, this building is one of those, but where the gap should be, there is a magical 13 floor that only a few can see. 

In each flat is a different mythical being. You have an ex-demon, who pretty much runs everything, a werewolf, a dragon slayer, a harpy, a cursed witch, a vampire, and a ghost. I hope I didn't miss anyone, but you all know what my memory is like. 

Each book sees a resident fighting a battle of some kind and also finding love with all of the stories overlapping and crashing up against each other in a very clever way. 

More than that I won't say, because I am terrified of giving too much away and spoiling it for others.

What I will say again though is that it is brilliant or they are brilliant technically, as it is a series of stories, and thus well worth a read. 

Well done, Christine. You're amazing! 

I also read Reality by Dani Hart, but I don't want to say too much about that one just yet, as I feel I owe it a re-read. I was just in a hurry to get through it, as I wanted to read Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater; so, I didn't give it the time and attention it deserved. 

And now, I am reading Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races. Yay! Only a few pages in, but loving it already. 

2) What am I writing? 

Well, mainly blog posts this week and emails. I have just been so busy, I haven't even had time to look at my WIP or edit Memory Book. Hoping to get some work on both done from tomorrow onwards, but we shall see. 

I am currently doing a series of blog posts for the month of October, in celebration of Halloween, about the hauntings on Bodmin moor, where my first novel, Insane Reno, is set. You can check the first one haunted Bodmin moor part 1, a brief history of the moor and the famous Jamaica inn here, if you like. 

Part 2, all going well, will be up tomorrow. 

3) What inspires me, right now? 

All the new books I am seeing from new authors is really inspiring me, as well as the huge support they get from the blogging community. 

When Insane Reno was first published, I was still coming to grips with the whole blogging thing. I didn't do any real big promotional things for it and I wish I had. I have been told I should do something now, but I am still not sure where to begin or how to go about it. 

Plus, I feel like Insane Reno was published too soon. I allowed others to push me forward when I wasn't happy with it. I way overworked the first chapter and got so paranoid about it that I actually ended up making it worse, rather than better. Yet, no one seems to see that but me. Whenever I try to read it now, that first chapter just drives me insane. Does anyone else feel that way when they look back at their work? I dunno; people seem to like it. Everyone who has read it has loved the story. Though some readers in America seemed to have issues with the grammar, that has since been fixed, thanks to my lovely editor.

I dunno, what do you think? If you think I should do some blog tours with it, then I could really do with some tricks and tips. I know the basics, of course, but I am terrible at being organised.

4) What else I've been up to

Mainly, not sleeping. The rest has just been work, work, and more work; but, it's all worth it. It really has been a busy week though. 

Here's hoping you have all had a much more relaxed week. 

Love and hugs, Joss xx