Experimenting with POV In my latest WIP, We Always Come Back, I've undertaken an unusual experiment with POV and narrative voice. My usual territory lies firmly in close third person. In fact, each of my seven completed nov...

Kids finally all back at school today. Wrote half a chapter this morning and a blog post. Winning.

a man and a woman are laughing and the man is saying " awkward laugh best season ever " Alt: Emilia Clarke during promo for GOT S8, the 'best season ever' awkward laugh meme

😂 I may or may not be in love with Emelia Clarke. And her cringe-smiles are the absolute best. Those eyebrows.

a woman in a sweater is smiling while looking at a man . Alt: Emelia Clarke doing a wonderfully awkward cringe-smile

Gotta love sci-fi

😂 Puddles is the correct term for the (trust me they deserve it) victims of pseudoscientific magic radiation powers, right?

Work in progress sketch of the plant symbiont priestess character. My best non-artist efforts.

Okay, she inspired me to try to draw her (as part of a diagram of my vague theory before it gets pushed out my head again). My kids are going crazy in the kitchen, forcing me to pause, but I got this far 😂 she looks like ET in a wig, but I’m trying.

Also: Procrastinating? Me?

🙌

And we love it 😂

Hell, at least *I'll* know how she does it.

😂 Because we love it.

I'm meant to be asleep now (it's 1:30am), but I'm not grappling with a scene outline where I've come to the agonising conclusion I don't think I can fit in ANY of what I just came up with because it's just way too much detail for a casual reader. 🤦‍♀️

I added zero words to my draft today, but I did form a highly dubious (and no doubt wildly incorrect) understanding of quantum systems, coherence, interference, and decoherence.

In related news, the coherent relationship between me and what I think I know has been thoroughly decohered.

a man is carrying a suitcase through a living room . Alt: Gif of George Michael from Arrested Development exhaustedly face planting the carpet at the model home in slow motion.

When you're writing a space opera and you fall down a four-hour quantum mechanics rabbit hole to come up with a flimsy theory for why your symbiotic plant-animal priestess can burst into blinding light and irradiate a couple of bounty hunters into a pair of puddles on the landing pad.

Agh!!!!!!! It looks so good on that shelf!!!

Likewise! Your support has been immeasurable! I am so excited your book is out in the world tomorrow (one of the best days in the year—as I think I mentioned before, it's my wedding anniversary 😊). I still can't believe how quickly you wrote it, edited it, and got it released. Superpowers!

🥳 Whoop!!!!!!

1 DAY UNTIL LAUNCH PREORDER TODAY THE DEVOURING A. M. SHILLING Throughout their marriage, Jason and Ayana’s lives always ran parallel but never entwined. It’s the perfect arrangement. He’s free to pursue his dangerous yet lucrative career as an elite assassin, and she can focus on conducting autopsies for the city’s forensic center. But after Jason spares a witness to his latest murder, he becomes the prime suspect in his own brother’s homicide. While he hunts for the real killer, Ayana discovers an impossible illness in one of her cadavers. The couple quickly identify an unsettling connection between the two events—one steeped in religious fanaticism and occult conspiracy. Jason and Ayana must learn to work together, using their wits, lies, and criminal connections to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult and exact revenge. But human enemies are the least of their concern. Beyond the boundary of their world exists a cosmic threat of apocalyptic proportions, and it is trying to break through.

Tomorrow, my debut novel goes out into the world. Follow along with Jason and Ayana as they investigate an occult conspiracy in this action-packed, high-stakes, cosmic horror thriller about the monsters we choose. Preorder your copy today! amshilling.com/books

#WritingCommunity #Booksky 💙📚🩸

That's such a lovely way of looking at them.

Can't wait to watch this after kiddos are in bed. Very excited for this release, and I'm eager to hear all about the nuts and bolts that went into making it.

Thank you 😊 Glad to see you back too!

It was so lovely. We had perfect conditions. Snow for the first few days, then glorious sunshine. So late in the season, it was really amazing.

Sounds like the right approach. I haven’t written many sex scenes, but I did a workshop on it at a conference, and the instructor suggested routing everything through character/arc/emotion, regardless of spice level for maximum impact. Which makes sense. I really need to work on sex scenes!

Agh! Amazing! I love the chemistry between Lex and Daemrin. Bet that's a killer scene!

Thank you 😊

How far along are you with COTBM?

Though my kids are on holiday for 2 more weeks, so maybe I'm crazy 😂

which I can hopefully reduce to 120/130k in final draft. I need to have a think about a new midpoint though, as there's not the most natural point in my rough outline. If I knuckle down, I should get this draft finished by the beginning of May.

I'm up to 75k and nearly at the half-way point. Surprise, surprise, I've had to reassess and turn the project into a duology. I don't have each chapter planned out, but I do have the rough beats, and it's all taking up much more space than I realised. I'm hoping first draft of Bk1 will be 150k,

Me, my husband, and our two daughters in ski gear up on the piste with the obligatory snowy alps backdrop.

My laptop, open on scrivener (blurred out because if the first draft blurgh of it all) on a table in the hotel lounge with a cappuccino next to it. Through the window behind you can see a piste and the hotel terrace.

Me and my son and daughters on our hotel room terrace with snowy mountains in the background.

Me and my husband on the same hotel room terrace but it’s just after sunset, and the sky framing the mountains is a beautiful mix of orange and blue

Just got back from a fun-filled, booze-soaked, action-packed week in the Alps with family & friends. Managed to get the tiniest amount of writing done. Had the best time, but I am excited to detox and get back to my WIP. Setting myself the lofty goal to get the first draft done in a month. Let’s go!

Just pre-ordered my copy. 😊 Can't wait to read it!

I'm rooting for you, Ange! You've got this!

Sorry to hear life is so hectic, Sam. Hope it all unhectics as soon as possible for you. Life is no fun when it's all up in your grill.

☺️ I am loving this book so much. The problem is that the characters and narrator are so fun to write, I am going to have a lot of cutting to do when this is done. I just can’t help writing their interactions. Definitely not all progressing stakes, plot, or characters, just pure fun.