Doing a Whole Lot of Nothing

Yup. That's basically my life at the moment. I've been up to a lot of nothing. I am, however, working on a "secret" novel. As in, no one knows what it is about or what's going on in it. It's liberating, to tell you the truth. No one is pressuring you to write more or make things different. No one says "that wouldn't happen like that" or that my characters are flat. It's really, really nice. Here's the cover. It doesn't give too much away. (This is going to be a short post. I really just want to get the contest off the homepage.. I'll come back this weekend to write something a bit more meaningful (maybe)).


I'm also in the process of planning... *counts* about seven more books. A fairytale, a dystopian, a sci-fi, a good old fashioned fantasy adventure, a mythology based book, and a paranormal/urban fantasy among them. Can't say I don't try to write in all genres, can you?

Back later, friends and fans! If you really want to keep up with me, come and "like" my author page on facebook. There is a link below. Ta-ta for now!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jami-Montgomery-author/252932942691

In celebration of March Madness, a contest!

I have seen so many authors/aspiring authors/literary agents running contests right now. And now I want in! I'm going to ask a few writer friends to help me judge so I'm not biased. Here's what I want to do!

The Contest: An art/fiction contest.At the same time, I am holding a "likes" contest.

You can choose to either write a short piece of fiction using your own characters, ect, or draw one of my characters from Nineteen.
If you choose to write your own piece using your own characters, guidelines are:
Poetry and short stories accepted.
Poetry should be less than two pages long. Short stories should be less than six pages. Nothing explicit, please. A few curse words is fine, but no sex or drugs.

If you choose to use my characters, ect, here are the guidelines.
You can choose to draw: Whisper, Matthieu, Albion, or Christophe. If you plan to do this, send me a message and I will send you a character description.

For the "likes" contest, the guidelines are:
Post about my page, my books, ect. Screenshot it and send it to me. You'll get one point for each time you talk about my writing. This can be on your blog, your twitter, your facebook, your writing site. Whatever.
If you get someone to come and "like" my author page and tell them to post on my wall that you sent them, you get two points. So if your friend, Bob, likes my page and tells me you sent him, that's two points. If Susy does the same, that's another two points.
Link to my facebook author page, which people should "like" for this contest to win these points:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jami-Montgomery-author/252932942691


Ah, Prizes. The best part.
I'm giving away TWO copies of A Promise of Forever, my self-published novel. I'll post another note with a pitch and a small excerpt. Each will come with a hand-made bookmark depicting my novel of your choice from the list below, designed, painted and signed by me (because it's just way too much fun.)

Have fun, followers! Let's make this contest as big as it can be! CONTEST ENDS ON MARCH 15! Send your submissions ASAP!


Winners: Choose your bookmark depiction here:

1) Nineteen
2) Knight's End
3) A Promise of Forever
4) Zenith
5) Nemesis

Nineteen, Contests, and More

     Hello again, followers. It's been (yet another) busy month for me. I did finally get my review from Harper Collins Publishing on my poem. I'll post that on the "Reviews" page, for any who want to check it out.
     I have another poem, called Your Little Porcelain Doll, in the top five right now. I should get that review around the beginning of March.
     Best news ever? I'm moving! Maybe. Hopefully. In July! Supposedly. Yup, headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma and couldn't be happier!
     Aside from that, with the help of my amazing tacular friend Ashley Maker, Nineteen is no longer plotless. In fact, it's almost finished. How about that? I'll be adding it to the "Projects" page soon! 
     Also on a new note, college started up once again (oh joy). So I've been a bit busy with homework and the like. But only four months left. Okay, that doesn't really make it sound any better. But, you know. 
     Sorry this is short. Lots to do tonight, and not much time to do it! I'm 3000 words away from finishing Nineteen and have a few ideas for another piece of the series that I have to get on paper. Not to mention finishing up my character bios and bumping my contest thread on inkpop like crazy! Check out the "Review" and "Projects" pages for more. Until next time!

Another one bites the dust

Well friends and followers, I've done it again. My poem, A Bridge and You, is officially on its way to be reviewed by an editor at HarperCollins publishing. It's exciting, but a bit sad at the same time. I'll be posting it on the Poetry page for you to take a look at.
Anywho, life is okay. I'm working on my Knight's End query, writing Dragon Quest, planning Darker Days, and building my characters for the plotless 19. Sounds fun, right? You know, it actually is.
I'm sorry I don't really have any great writing tips to share today. I'm only posting because it's been so long and I felt I needed one. Oh! I bought a new book today! *surprise, surprise* It's called My Dream Map. It's a book that you basically use as a type of workbook to "map" out the road to achieving your dreams. So far I'm really enjoying it :)

In the Works: Dragon Quest

Well I have scrapped all plans of completing a novel for NaNoWriMo this year, but all is not lost! While I have given up on Immure for the time being, I do plan to eventually write it. I think the major problem with NaNo this year *aside from lack of time* was the fact that I really wanted to be working on Dragon Quest, and writing Immure just wasn't inspiring me at all. So now I have quit  NaNo and I am working diligently on Dragon Quest.
I just finished reading Wendy Higgins' blog post where she went into detail about how the idea for Sweet Evil came along. And I realize she is a published author and therefor her stories are interesting, but I am in a blogging mood so I am going to let you in on the secret of how Dragon Quest was born.
First off, this trilogy started out as a six book saga. There were six Shields of Power, forty-two Gems of Power, and a lot more characters. It had a storyline that included the entire history of the world, a pair of brothers set against each other by a vindictive demon, and a group of Gorgins who were tied into the Prophecy.
I have since decided I could never finish six books. It's hard enough to find meaningful ways for the Four Destined to find seven gems, much less forty-two!

But maybe I should explain the story a bit better before I get into where it came from. You were a little kid once, right? We all were. And we all played pretend. We made up stories for our Barbies, our stuffed animals were superheros, and we ourselves for Sailor Scouts. But my writer side took over when I was young, and my sister and I became more than that. We became the Four Destined (who originally did not hold that title). There were five of us, at the time: Alice, John, Jackey, Alicia, and Antonio. (Antonio has since been cut from the book, and their names have all changed). We slayed dragons, made friends with the elves. Heck, we even started drawing the characters and making our world.
I'm not sure exactly how old I was when I first decided to write The 6 Shields (original title). I know I had a first draft finished in sixth grade, and a second around eighth. I fell in love with the characters, and this story has always been my baby. But I strayed. I wrote A Promise of Forever. Then I wrote Knight's End. And then I started in on Oblivion and Immure. But I came back to Dragon Quest when everything else sort of flopped, and it's coming along much better than my sixth grade mind ever imagined it.

It has since been retitled and shortened to a trilogy. Instead of The 6 Shields: The First Shield, ect, it is now Dragon Quest, Mahimi's Island, and The Last Battle. The Four Destined are Jace, Elysia, Aelita, and Cade. The creatures have all changed and the gems are now scattered and found throughout the first two books. The last book is a book of war.
But anyway, that's where the idea came from. Two young girls playing pretend. And it has turned into what I am hoping will end up being a phenomenon. It's not twilight; no vampires or werewolves. It's high fantasy at its (hopeful) best. And it's been such a joy working on it again :D
To all who care, this is me signing off so I can write.
Jami

NaNoWriMo!!!

So it is officially November 1 (on my part of the world, anyway) and I am SO excited to be starting NaNo today! But where has the last week gone? I swear I had eight days left last time I checked..
In any case, here's the plan: I want to write TWO books for NaNo. I know! I'm completely mental. But I started writing Dragon Quest (on projects page) a few days ago and now I am addicted. I also plan to write Immure (also on projects page) as my true *from scratch* NaNo. Dragon Quest is outlined, so it really doesn't count.
On top of that, I have a 10 page long research paper to write (I am five pages in) and a speech that has to be six minutes long (haven't started) both due in November, as well as a full business plan (1/3 done) that is due at the end of the month. In over my head? Maybe a little, but it is going to be an interesting November!
I also want to finish reading Destined by P.C. Cast so I can move on to one of the many, many (many!) other books I recently bought. (Matched, The Hollow, Alterant, Son of Neptune, Halo...need I go on?). Plus I am working on my Writer's Fellowship application that is due in December, studying for finals (also in December) working, helping my mom with her craft shows... Ok I think it is time for bed! I have way too much going on starting tomorrow (today D:) and I definitely need some sleep before November (officially) begins.
Good night, and good luck to all you NaNoWriMo's out there joining me for this month of craziness!

Taking a break from the workshop

School and work have proven too much for me to keep up with writing and my blog, so I am choosing to stick with writing for the time being. I am currently in the process of outlining Immure, a new book idea, and writing Oblivion. The Dystopian novel has taken over my heart, so I am trying to write at least 1000 new words a day into the project. At this rate, I should have about 25K written in time for NaNoWriMo... I may have to choose a different book for my NaNo project.. maybe I'll write Immure for NaNo..

Do you have a plan for NaNoWriMo? Share it with me! Add me on NaNo as well! There's a link in my "find me" page!