Virtual Book Fair Booth: T.A. White

Title: Shadow's Messenger
Author: T.A. White

Summary: Coming home from Afghanistan was supposed to be something great. That ended when I met tall, dark and handsome in a bar and wound up in a dumpster sporting a nice set of fangs and my life flipped on its head.

Now I'm a messenger for Hermes Courier Service trying to make enough to support my ice cream habit while staying below vampire radar. When this newest job of mine goes disastrously awry, it puts me on the hook to be indentured to a sorcerer for the next fifty years unless I can find a way to fix things.

What's hidden can't stay in the shadow's forever and my life will never be the same.

Click here to check out a sample or purchase.

Visit my website for a list of my other books and current projects.

About the Author: Writing is my first love. Even before I could read or put coherent sentences down on paper, I would beg the older kids to team up with me for the purpose of crafting ghost stories to share with our friends. This first writing partnership came to a tragic end when my coauthor decided to quit a day later, and I threw my cookies at her head. Today, I stick with solo writing, telling the stories that would otherwise keep me up at night.

Most days (and nights) are spent feeding my tea addiction while defending the computer keyboard from my feline companion, Loki.

Scavenger Hunt Number - 17

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Knowing when to push through

Sometimes writing is knowing when to quit. By that I mean, knowing when your creative mind just can't put words on paper. Any words that you manage to tear out of you just end up going into the trash before your next writing day.

The other side of writing is knowing when to push yourself to stay with it. Sometimes you find that you do your best work when you're tearing the words out of you one by one, sentence by sentence. It's hard, boy is it hard, but at the end of the day you look back and are amazed by what you created even if you cursed every moment you spent fighting with the muse.

Knowing which is which can be difficult and something I struggle with even today. Am I just being lazy? Or is my mind truly not capable of producing a coherent thought?

Today was one of those days. Where every moment was agony and I questioned whether I should just throw in the towel. There's always tomorrow, after all. This time I was triumphant in defeating the muse. Whether any of those pages will be worth keeping, I won't know until tomorrow when I sit down to battle the muse once again. For now, I'm just grateful I could advance the story in some small way.

The Middle

Photo taken while fishing

I've been a little absent of late due to travel for work and pleasure, but that doesn't mean I haven't been writing. I have. Every spare moment I can. The sequel for Dragon-Ridden is progressing, and I am well into the mid section of the book.

This is the part where I always get a little nervous. Do I have too much plot left to wade through? Too little? Does the plot make sense? Hm, I want to add this and this and this, but I don't know if it makes sense with the current story. The list goes on and on. Sometimes the indecision and second guessing can slow things to a grinding halt. I've found it works best if I ignore my inner doubter and just plunge on, trusting that everything can be fixed in the rewrite.

Right now, I'm eyeing how much I've written and how much of my plan I still have left to write while trying to determine if maybe the story needs to be simplified. Or not. Every book is different, which makes it difficult to decide if I am trying to cram too much story into one book. Sometimes scenes go quick and sometimes they drag on. As is the case in a certain scene in the first half of the book. Other times scenes you didn't account for pop up to further complicate matters.

I feel like I've got a beast by the tail and am trying to wrestle it into submission while blindfolded with one hand behind my back. That's always a difficult and slightly uncomfortable place to be.

Alas, it is time to put words on paper and hope they make some sort of sense. Wish me luck.