Illustrations

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

I met with the artist who is doing the interior artwork for my book this week.

Spoiler alert, she’s my sister.

Crazy, right? I, who can draw stick figures and the occasional smiley face, have a sister who does artwork like this:

And this:

If you’re interested in her Instagram, btw, you can find her here.

Anyway, she and I had a meeting. She’s been reading my book from the very first day I started writing it, and now I finally get to commission her and her incredible talents for the chapter headings, a full page illustration for the title pages, and a map.

I’m way excited about the map.

Every good book should have a map in it.

That first picture is a draft sketch of the chapter headings we designed together.

It’s a mess now, but I can guarantee it’s going to be gorgeous later.

I promise.

New Logo

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

I am still chipping away at revisions for the book I have coming out at the end of this year. Once I finish with it, it will be sent off to my editor, and she will send it back with a million notes to tell me all the things that are wrong with it.

When you have someone like that, y’all, appreciate them. Not everyone is willing to be so wonderfully honest with you.

While I’m working on that, I’m also checking off the other thousand tiny tasks that go into getting a book published, including this lovely new logo.

I finished it last night. It’s perfect.

My book is being published through my business, Storynook Productions. The regular logo that I have, with my personal and business brand, is too complex for the spine of a book, so I had to come up with a similar, simplified version.

I think I managed it.

I’m excited about this, y’all. Getting a book from manuscript to finished product is an overwhelming amount of details, but I have been planning for this for years, and I am so ready to have it in my hands.

Plus, this is the kind of thing I enjoy. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing a dream come together?

Ten Years In The Making

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

I have a confession to make.

It’s horrifying. Are you ready to be horrified?

Here we go.

Ten years ago, I wrote the first half of my two hundred plus page novel in the notes section of my iPod touch.

No, I’m not kidding.

Yes, it was every bit as bad as it sounds.

By the time I finally succumbed and switched to a computer, I spent almost as much time scrolling as I did writing.

You know, because it was all one impossibly long document visible only through a tiny iPod touch screen.

It makes me overwhelmed just thinking about it.

What happened was this. Ten years ago, I graduated high school and promptly went on a week-long road trip with my dad to a school up in Idaho where he was lecturing. The night before we left, I started playing around with a story that I had been thinking about for a while. A medieval fantasy story about a bodyguard-turned-gladiator who is forced to gamble on his own soul to save his partner from the ring.

And, because I was leaving for Idaho the next morning, I wrote the beginning on my iPod.

Would I ever do this again?

Absolutely not.

Was it worth it?

Well . . . I’ll leave that to you to decide. Ten years later, I am still working on this book/series. (There are five!) And at the beginning of this year, my lovely editor and I began moving toward getting the first one ready to release into the world.

I’m panicking. It feels like I’m letting my baby out of the house for the first time.

Okay, my ten year old child that I should have set free a long time ago. But these things take time, okay?

Anyway, the books are ready, and this year, we are running through all of the many tasks necessary to get them released into the world. Edits, a few last revisions on chapters that need an update, cover design, interior artwork . . . I’m having way too much fun.

There’s gonna be a map, y’all. I have an artist lined up already.

I’m wildly excited.

There are a lot of steps ahead of me, so I’ll be sure to share all the exciting things as they appear! I’m crossing my fingers for a 2023 release date and promise to keep you updated.

Autumn Books

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

Every year, I get way too excited about fall.

Annoyingly excited, actually.

I’m one of those people who plans out my autumn before it starts, just so I can be sure to get everything I want to done before winter blows in. This is the first year I’ve actually written down my list, but I think it’s going to be a yearly tradition.

How else am I supposed to plan for all my corn maze excursions and the hot apple cider bonfires?

But the very first list I always make is my autumn reading list.

It’s vitally important.

Some books just have a certain time of year attached to them, and what is autumn without a few ghostly stories and some thrillers packed into it? This year, I got a bit of a jump on my reading list, mostly because I barely read at all this summer. The combination of a new business, a month-long vacation, and a long illness put a huge dent in my usually lengthy finished-reading list, and this fall, I’m determined to make up for it.

I started with Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie.

What better way to start an autumn reading list than with a murder mystery? Agatha Christie is one of my all-time favorite authors, and Hercule Poirot is my favorite of her characters. It felt very right to start off with this particular book. It has a chilling element of evil to it that captures that creepy, ghostly autumn vibe perfectly.

Sherlock Holmes has been on my list too lately. His books perfectly capture that rainy day kind of feel, and the minute I started The Hound of the Baskervilles, I knew it was just the right book for my reading list this year. Gloomy, dark, suspenseful, and with just the right amount of intrigue and action to make a good mystery. I’m a big fan of all the Sherlock Holmes novels, but this one is by far my favorite.

I have a few others on my list as well. Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. Frankenstein, Dracula, A Wrinkle in Time. Possibly The Witches and Anne of Green Gables too, if I can find the time. I have to remember not to let the list get too long, or I won’t have time for my Christmas reads this year either.

That’s another list I’ll be making soon. In a few months.

What are you reading this autumn? Tell me about it in the comments!

Messy Writing

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

I have a new book in the works.

Exciting, right?

My life has been a little crazy lately, what with work and being married and working through lessons on MasterClass and possibly even working on design ideas for a new house. (Gasp.)

But, in the midst of it all, I have my own work to get done. My personal projects. The ones that, just now, matter to nobody but me. This blog is one of them, and another, very special one, is the new book I’ve been working on.

I’m wildly excited about it. It’s a middle-grade novel about monsters and kidnapped children and courage and fierce little girls and vegan toast and greasy lawyers. I have much too much fun writing it.

Since I work full time and try to be a fully functioning wife and human being part of the time, it doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Mostly just an hour every weekday, in that short squeak of time after work and before my husband gets home.

And occasionally on weekends.

And holidays, if I can sneak away long enough to pull my computer out for an hour or so.

This particular book has been coming together in bits and pieces, and it has been a solid lesson in humility for me. See, I’ve been a writer for about eight years now. I’ve written at least ten books. I get paid to write.

And yet, a first draft will always be a first draft, no matter how much experience you have or how much time you can put into it.

In other words, it’s a trash fire.

The story makes no sense. The characters refuse to do what I want them to do. The setting is rather gray and lumpy and not at all what I wanted it to be. And don’t even get me started about the theme, because the thought-provoking and inspirational idea I started out with has refused to show up entirely, and there’s a gaping hole where it is meant to be.

And yet, every day, I sit down to write a little more. And I remind myself that a first draft is a first draft, and its entire job just now is to exist. Not to be pretty, not to be complete, not even to make sense. It just has to be.

Because I find my books in the writing. I can plan and outline and think things through all I want, but once I sit down to actually write it, quite a different story emerges. The story that was meant to be. The one that is needed.

And the first draft is the first—rather messy—step to something I can be proud of.

What are you working on just now? Tell me about it in the comments!

Book Lists

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

I recently sat down and reorganized my ‘finally read that’ book list. Mostly because 2020 was coming to an end, and I wanted a fresh start for a new year.

Also, I decided it was time to face the reading disaster that was 2020 and figure out how to move on from it.

I read 62 books in 2020.

I’ve decided to consider it an accomplishment, considering that I survived a global pandemic, learned how to successfully work from home, started dating my best friend and subsequently married him, and somehow planned an entire wedding in three months.

Reading was not a top priority. So we’re calling 62 a massive victory.

Thankfully, 2021 is here at last, and since I am not planning on arranging an entire wedding this year, I’m hoping that my time will be somewhat less limited. There’s nothing worse than a writer who doesn’t have time to read. We get cranky. Our idea box gets all stopped up. It’s bad.

While I was reorganizing my ‘finally read that’ book list, I did a few quick calculations and discovered that—including the two books I’ve already read this year—I have read 292 books since the beginning of 2017.

I’m hoping to add another 100 to that in 2021.

I’ve discovered that the best tactic for building a solid book list is to start the year off well. I’ve read two books already this year: The Inferno and The Purgatorio. Paradiso would have been next, but I buy most of my books in thrift stores, and that’s one volume that I haven’t found quite yet. Since I haven’t been frequenting thrift stores lately, I took the plunge and ordered it.

Thank goodness for Barnes and Noble.

While I wait for it to show up, I’ve been reading a collection of George Bernard Shaw’s plays. I don’t read plays often, but the ones I’m reading now have convinced me that I need to read more of them. The dialogue is quick-witted and smart-mouthed, and the characters are vivid and interesting. As a scriptwriter for a radio program, my writing lives and dies on the quality of my dialogue, and it’s been fascinating to study these plays and the technique that went into them.

Everything I read, whether history or children’s fiction or classical poetry, is part of my education as a writer. I am firmly convinced that you can learn from anything. The best books teach me what to cultivate in my own writing, the worst ones, what to avoid.

Here’s to another year of learning, and another book list!

Any books you’re planning on reading this year? Tell me about them in the comments!

Keeping Pace

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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Reading has been hard lately.

Isn’t it weird how that happens sometimes? Life gets busy, people need your attention, work takes up more time than you expect, and BAM! You’ve read two books for the whole month.

Ouch.

I actually don’t remember how many books I read in May. I’d have to check. Hopefully, it was more than two, but I have my doubts. Reading has been HARD lately. Sometimes, even the most important things in your life can get pushed back because of stress or work or people or about a hundred other things that I don’t have the energy to list right now.

Life happens, is what I’m trying to say. And when it does, you have to pick your priorities in order to keep pace with it.

And right now, sadly, reading one hundred books this year is not one of my priorities.

Tragic, right?

Oh well.

The nice part is, I really do have time to read occasionally. In the mornings after my workout . . . six minutes before I start work for the day. Or in the evening, fifteen minutes before I drop into bed. It’s not for long stretches, generally, but I do try to pick up my books often enough to remember that I love to read. Thankfully, I have no shortage of things to read. There’s the audiobook on my phone that I have neglected to start. And the book on my phone that I’m reading for work. And my many, many bookshelves which are full to bursting of books I would love to read or reread.

Still haven’t chosen one of those since I finished the last one. Should probably do that.

Leaving a book on my end table right next to where I sit has also proven to help remind me to read. A page here, a page there. I may not reach a hundred books this year, but I’m keeping pace. And I’m getting a few books read while I do.

How do you keep up with your reading when life gets busy? Tell me about it in the comments!

The First Of The Year

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

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The first book, that is.

That’s right! My book list for this year is up and running. I have two books on it so far. A Map Of Days, and The Hygge Life. Thankfully, I’ve had a bit of time to read and relax this weekend, because the last few weeks have been crazy and hectic and busy, and my books got the worst of it.

I didn’t pick them up. For days.

But I’m back into the regular swing of things, and the age-old question that every bookworm/adult asks is now knocking at my door.

“How in the name of bookmarks and sanity am I supposed to find time to read as an adult?”

What a great question!

I have no idea how to answer it.

Obviously, there must be an answer. I know amazing, fantastic adults who tackle so much more than I could ever dream of doing who read. And not just read, but read a lot. It is possible.

And now that I am entering a new year with a new set of pressures and deadlines and expectations, I am determined that I am going to find my own answer to this question. Because, of course, every adult who faces this question has to find their own answer.

Unfortunately, there is no universal key.

No one-size-fits-all.

No secret formula.

For me personally, I know already that a good deal of whatever books I plow through this year are going to have to be audiobooks. I have an hour’s ride to work in the morning and an hour home, and it’s amazing how many audiobooks I can devour with that time. For the rest—I’ll have to catch them in minutes. In the last half-hour before bed. During my lunch break—when I’m not trying to be social and have friends.

I am still convinced that bookmarks are the adult reader’s best friends.

I don’t have anything even remotely similar to a ‘to-be-read’ list for this year, but a few that will hopefully feature on my ‘read’ list are . . .

Nicholas Nickleby

Les Miserables

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

The Lord of the Rings

The Girl in Cabin 10 (which I am reading now)

and Garden City.

I like to scatter old and new books through my list. Old favorites and new experiences. Since I always choose my books by what I feel like reading at the moment, none of these are certain. But at least I will have tried!

What’s on your to-be-read list this year? Tell me about it in the comments! And I’d love suggestions for my own list as well!

Who Has Time To Read??

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

This week, I spent Friday night nannying at someone’s house.

Because I party hard, ya’ll.

I don’t normally nanny anymore, mostly because I work forty hours a week in an office, then get home and work on side hustle/personal career/books until I go to sleep. But this particular job fell into my lap, and I couldn’t say no. I mean, who DOESN’T need a little extra cash the month before Christmas, right?

At least, that’s what I told myself when I got home at 10 o’clock and realized I’d been awake for seventeen consecutive hours and really, really wanted to have been asleep a long time ago.

Not that I was counting.

But, aside from a little extra cash and an excuse to go out to dinner, this nanny job also gave me an excuse to sit on my butt and read for an hour or so. I mean, the kids were in bed, parents weren’t headed home for a while, and I had time.

And time, lately, isn’t something I have a lot of.

Actually, my reading has slowed down a little in the last few months. And by slowing down a little, I mean it’s fallen off a cliff into the ocean. I generally read a lot—in fact, I’ve read 96 books this year. But finding time to read when you work forty hours a week and run your own side hustle is a little—demanding.

So I listen to audiobooks in my car—with the volume all the way up, because due to personal reasons, my car sounds like a monster truck. Please don’t ask. And I sneak in a chapter here and a few pages there. I’ve started to bring a book to work with me, so I can read during my lunch break. That tends to have mixed results. Mostly because I do want to be social as well and hang out with my coworkers.

Because being social is definitely a priority in my life.

Wink wink.

Just now, I am working through Seven Years In Tibet. Actually, I’ve reviewed this wonderful book on my blog before, and I can truthfully say that it is just as magical and engaging the second time around. Despite having to read it in bits and pieces. I also have an audiobook waiting for me, which I WILL start today. Lately, the temptation in my car has been to turn on the radio and listen to music on the way to work, and several of my audiobooks have been returned to the library unheard.

Definitely not my proudest moment.

But today I am jumping back on the bookwagon, so to speak, and am determined not only to listen to this audiobook, but to fill up my queue again.

Soo… any suggestions?

What kind of crazy things do you do to find time to read? Tell me about them in the comments!

9 Truths For A Writer’s Soul: Plot Holes

Posted on by A.R. Geiger

Okay, have any of you seen the Disney film, Moana?

Excellent, excellent movie. My god sister got me hooked on the music, which I totally did not intend to like and ended up loving.

Anyway, there is a scene in Moana where Moana is on the boat sailing out to sea, and she realizes her chicken is on board with her. And the chicken, because it is a chicken and chickens are stupid, keeps trying to walk off the boat into the ocean. So she sticks it into the cubbyhole with her food, and instead of jumping out, it walks around bumping into walls and is completely stuck.

Anyone remember that scene?

Yes?

Great!

That’s exactly how it feels to be stuck in a plot hole.

Isn’t that frustrating? Plot holes, no matter how big or small, are a pain to deal with. Sometimes the biggest ones feel impossible to seal up, and we end up with trashed stories and derailed careers.

But, writer, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Every single plot hole, no matter how vast or how black or how terrible, is fixable.

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But, writer, your imagination is endless. There is no limit to what you can discover in your story and no limit to what you can conjure up.

Except the limits you place on yourself.

My Experience

If you ever happen to come by my house and find me lying on my couch with my feet poking up in the air and my head hanging off the edge, don’t worry. I haven’t lost my mind. (Okay, I have a little bit.) I am simply getting a different perspective on life.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is take a look at the world upside down. Look at things a different way. Change something that you’ve always considered to be set in stone. Trash a character whose stubbornness is holding you back. You are the master of your story, and you are more than capable of handling the complexity of whatever problems it throws at you.

Four Tips To Apply It In Your Own Life

1. Nothing is set in stone. You are the author, and you are allowed to change whatever you like. If something doesn’t serve your book anymore, drop it. If you suddenly have the deep desire to throw mermaids into the mix, do it. Your story is your own, and the fear of messing things up will only drag you backward.

2. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a story is drop something that isn’t working any longer. I’m so serious about this one. So serious. If there is a character that is making a mess, kick him out. If a plot point creates more trouble than it’s worth, find another way to get what you want. As enchanting or engaging as some things are, they’re not always worth the trouble they cause.

3. Grab a pen and notebook, and go a little wild. Write down everything that could happen. Everything from death to maiming to spontaneous rebirth to rescue by mermaids. I’m serious. Be ridiculous. Don’t take hours on each idea. Give them a sentence each, throw them onto the paper, and let your brain have some fun. Eventually, I think, you’ll find a solution that fits your story and your style.

4. Be certain, absolutely, positively certain that whatever the trouble is, you can handle it. You’re a writer. This is what you do. Every plot hole has a solution, and you will find it. Sometimes, that assurance is the most important thing. Allowing doubt to creep in will only ever kill your creativity.

Good luck, dearest writer! May your tea be hot and your dreams wild.

Was this post helpful to you? Tell me about it in the comments, and drop in any tips of your own! I would love to hear about it.