Author

My 2024 Goals

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments
Image by Quốc Hùng Hầu from Pixabay

It’s hard to believe it, but here we are again, tumbling wearily towards the end of yet another year with a brand new one just peeking over the horizon. The world does not seem to be getting better sadly – there seems to be more at stake than ever. But I will distract myself from that for now by following my yearly tradition of setting out my goals for the year ahead. I find it keeps me on track, feels good to write them down and it is fun to revisit them a year later and see how many I achieved! In my last post I wrote about my 2023 goals vs the reality. I achieved 6 out of 8, which I’m happy with. https://chantelleatkins.com/2023/12/09/my-2023-goals-vs-the-reality/

Here is what I hope to achieve in 2024, writing related and otherwise:

  1. Publish the next two books in The Day The Earth Turned Series – with the first two books ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’ already available, it will be perfectly doable to stick with my plan of releasing book 3 ‘Winter’ in January and book 4 ‘Spring’ in April.
  2. Publish At Night We Played In The Road – this spin off from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series has been a long time coming. I first got the idea about four years ago, when enjoying the shows Supernatural and Breaking Bad. Those two shows gave me the idea of two co-dependant brothers (Supernatural!) trying to navigate and survive the criminal drug world they are growing up in. (Breaking Bad.) At the time I was working on The Boy With The Thorn In His side series and suddenly figured out a way I could add these characters, Alfie and Tom Lane to the series. I thought that might be the end of their story and introduced them in book 5 of the series where they find themselves entangled in main character Danny’s fight to escape the clutches of his own criminal past. However, I fell so in love with Alfie and Tom, I had to know more about them, and started writing notes in a notebook, even whole chapters, in order to explore their back story. The book was a tricky one to write, especially because towards the end the timeline crosses over with book 5 of The Boy series and I had to make sure the scenes were not too repetitive for anyone who has read that series. My editor has played a huge part in helping sculpt this book into something I am really excited about. I will be tackling her final edits in the new year and plan to release the book around June/July 2024.
  3. Publish The Mess Of Us – This sequel to my 2013 debut novel The Mess Of Me has just come back from my wonderful beta readers. They’ve been tremendously helpful and overwhelmingly positive and I can’t wait to dive in and do another edit of the book with their valuable feedback in mind. I’ll get to this once I’ve gone through my editor’s comments for At Night They Played In The Road and once that is done I’ll send it to her, bringing it one step closer to publication. I don’t foresee any structural edits for this one, so hopefully it will be minor edits and I can plan to get it published for autumn/winter 2024.
  4. Republish The Mess Of Me with updates and new cover – Before I started The Mess Of Us I reread and updated The Mess Of Me and arranged a new cover. I would have set it up for an update but I have not had the time this year, however waiting to coincide its update with the release of its sequel is probably a good idea!
  5. Send The Dark Finds You to beta readers – this book is now ready for beta reader feedback. This book wasn’t meant to happen, but writing The Mess Of Us, and At Night We Played In The Road gave me ideas for a crossover book and I just couldn’t resist. Many of my books are linked in the same universe, with characters and places reappearing in different books, and writing these two books which link up with previous books, led me to an idea that would neatly tie up everyone’s stories. Bill Robinson from The Holds End trilogy was already linked to Elliot Pie from Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature as they are neighbours on the same estate and are briefly mentioned in each other’s books. In The Dark Finds You, Elliot’s mum is now with Bill’s dad and they are expecting a baby together, making Elliot and Bill almost brothers. The main story-line involves Elliot’s best friend Finn being missing. Leah (Elliot’s other friend) and Laura (Elliot’s mother) are also in the book and have chapters from their points of view. Bill is on a downwards spiral as his addiction problems from The Holds End trilogy are still an issue, but he cares about Elliot and promises to help him find Finn. Bill’s band have a regular slot at Chaos, a nightclub owned and run by Danny, from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series… He also makes a small appearance in the Holds End trilogy and gets drawn into the search for the missing Finn, as a favour to Bill, who he has a lot in common with. Meanwhile, at the end of The Mess of Us, Leon (the main antagonist in The Mess of Me) has somewhat redeemed himself but is in debt to the drug dealers he used to work for. His brother Joe joins Bill’s band, and Leon is instructed to circulate drugs at Chaos, putting all these characters together in one book. It was so addictive to write because I knew all the characters so well! I don’t plan to publish it in 2024 but hope to at the start of 2025. It will be the final book in that universe.
  6. Continue to publish and grow on Medium – I joined Medium in April and I am so glad I did. I am extremely pleased with the earnings I’ve made from this writing platform and I find it to be a very warm, friendly and inspiring place. At the moment I am trying to submit 3-4 pieces a week and I’ll aim to keep that up in 2024.
  7. Launch the website for Chasing Driftwood Books – Chasing Driftwood Books is an indie collective started by myself and Sim Alec Sansford. It’s basically our own publisher! We published our Fortune’s Well trilogy under it plus our collaborative lockdown book, Stay Home. At the moment there are eight of us in the collective. Our plan is to support and promote each other and eventually let other authors join if they’re a good fit. The website will have all our books available to buy on author pages for each of us. I really hope 2024 is the year we push this forward as its been a long time coming!
  8. Tackle the third draft of Black Hare Valley – this won’t be a priority and will only happen if and when I get gaps between editors and beta readers getting back to me on the books mentioned above. Black Hare Valley was an idea I got about five or six years ago. My son helped me design the town with a huge map we drew together. I wrote some ideas and some character bios and that was it. Then, almost two years ago, we had a long power cut and an even longer time without the internet so I couldn’t work on the books on my laptop. I suddenly had the opening chapter to Black Hare Valley so grabbed a notebook and wrote it. Of course, this led to the next chapter, and the next and so on. I ended up writing the whole thing into five notebooks by hand and then put is aside to go back to the other books close to publication. Just recently, I was waiting for feedback from beta readers and my editor so decided to type up Black Hare Valley. This was technically the second draft but didn’t feel like it as I didn’t make too many changes. I just finished this a few days ago and will now leave it alone while I get all the other books ready for release. I have had some extra ideas for the plot though, so I added them to the end in note form and I am so excited to get back to this at some point!
  9. Add paid and free writing resources to the Chasing Driftwood Writing Group website – The site is now split between my writing group which provides writing opportunities to young people, and Chasing Driftwood Books which aims to support our group of indie authors. I’d like to add free resources to the writing group side. Regular prompts and challenges, as well as blog posts and tips and advice. I’d also like to add some paid resources such as some notebooks we have designed and some non-fiction books we are working on to encourage writing. I’m not sure if I will get time for this but I had to add it to the list to try and keep me on track!
  10. Get into hiking – We recently bought a caravan in Ilfracombe, Devon, which is close to the South West Salt path and Exmoor. It’s a beautifully wild and rugged coastal environment and I’ve had a strong urge to get into hiking for a while now. I just bought myself hiking boots with some Christmas money and I am so excited to get started! I am longing for adventures and keen to explore the area more as its just so beautiful.

That is a challenging list and I might not achieve them all but I always find it helps me to write my goals down so that I can refer back to them and try to stay on track. I’m excited about all of them and looking forward to a brand new year of writing, publishing and adventures.

What about you? Any hopes for the year ahead? Are you setting yourself any goals?

My 2023 Goals Vs The Reality

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

It’s a yearly tradition for me to lay out my goals for the year ahead just before New Years Eve, and then almost a year later, refer to each goal and see how well I did!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

So, here are the 8 goals I set myself for 2023 and the results.

  1. Start releasing ‘The Day The Earth Turned’ series – Achieved! As planned I released book 1: Summer in June, and book 2: Autumn in October. Book 3: Winter is all set up and ready to be released in January, hopefully followed by book 4: Spring in March or April.
  2. Finish ‘At Night They Played In The Road’ (working title, I still can’t quite decide) and send to editor – Achieved! In fact, I recently received the edits from my wonderful editor and will start working on them very soon. I hope to release it around June 2024.
  3. Publish ‘Days End’, the third book in the Fortune’s Well trilogy – Achieved! The whole trilogy is now published and available in ebook, paperback and hardback!
  4. Keep adding to my new short story and poetry collection – Achieved! I haven’t added a lot and this collection is nowhere near ready for publication but I have managed to add a few new poems to it this year.
  5. Launch Chasing Driftwood Books – Achieved! (Sort of) While we are not ready for any kind of official launch, Chasing Driftwood Books is a thing in motion. There are now eight authors in our indie collective and we are currently taking part in a Christmas calendar countdown together. The website is in progress and our mission is clear. Hopefully this time next year we will have fully launched!
  6. Keep improving my vegetable plot and self-sufficiency in general – Failed! Well, mostly. Unfortunately, my vegetable plot ended up being very neglected this year, despite my good intentions. I have realised and accepted that I just don’t have time for it. I made the decision to take down the fence and start clearing it all away at the end of the season. I felt too sad looking at it. I’m not giving up entirely and I still plan to grow things out there. I am just going to be a bit more realistic about what I have time for.
  7. Keep Up with dog training –Achieved! I had no choice, really. A year ago Ada was a sweet little puppy who was only just starting to go for walks after her jabs. It soon became very obvious that she had a deeply ingrained fear and mistrust of the outside world and just about everything in it! Her reactivity as a puppy was absolutely terrible and I was truly stunned, wondering what on earth I had done wrong. We have done constant training since then, at home, on all our walks and with our wonderful dog trainer. She has been enjoying Hoopers, Trick Training and more recently Future Stars which is teaching her the basics for agility later on. She adores training. She is desperate to learn and please you; she just finds a lot of things very worrying. She is a lot less reactive now, thankfully. She generally won’t react anymore to previous triggers, such as cars, bikes, motorbikes, scooters, children, buggies, men in hi-vis jackets, men in helmets… It was a lot! Now it is mostly just other dogs and not all of them. Just the ones that worry her!
  8. Get fitter and stronger – Failed! I haven’t gotten worse, I just wasn’t able to keep up the pilates. I’m happy with my body and my fitness but its hiking I really want to get into next year!

I think six out of eight is not too bad and the two I didn’t achieve were not total fails. All in all it has been a good year in terms of writing and family life. Look out for next week’s post where I will set out my goals for 2024!

My Experience On Medium So Far

~ ChanAtkins ~ 16 Comments

I first became aware of the writer’s platform, Medium, a few years back when an author I follow on Facebook started posting about it. This author would share pieces he had published on Medium and suggested it was a worthwhile platform for writers to invest in if they fancied getting paid for their work. At the time, I thought, good for you and moved on by. So often in this industry, authors are bombarded with ways to make money out of writing and it often becomes too much. There are only so many hours in a day, and most of us have full time day-jobs and families to contend with too.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Over the next few years I noticed a few other authors I respect had started publishing on Medium. They too often mentioned how good it was. Again, I thought, good for you, but I don’t have time. Too many books to write and promote and not enough hours in the day was my excuse.

Then, back in April, one of these authors messaged me privately to urge me to give it a go. He had just enjoyed one of my blog posts and pointed out that similar types of articles, essays and personal pieces could be making me money on Medium if I gave it a go. He told me he was on average earning around $200 a month which made a nice little side hustle and finally, I was intrigued. I decided to sign up and give it a go. I went all in, rejecting the free option for the paid one. You pay $5 a month to be a member on Medium and that gives you access to all the work published on there, plus it gives you a chance to apply for the partner programme. Being part of that, I was told, was how you eventually started earning money.

To start with, I set up my profile and on the advice of my friend, wrote an ‘About Me’ article. This is apparently the best way to begin to get follows. Life took over after that and I neglected the site until a few months later. By now, I was aware that another author friend of mine was also doing well on Medium, making an average of £200 a month to supplement her other income streams. There are, of course, many writers making even more than that per month, and this knowledge gave me a new determination.

If you’re not aware of how Medium operates, I will try and break it down for you.

You can sign up to the free version, post anything you like and read other posts that don’t have a paywall in front of them. This is not a bad way to get started and get a feel for the place.

Or, like me, you can sign up to be a member. You can then start posting whatever you like. Poems, stories, flash fiction, articles, essays, personal pieces and more. You can post by yourself or you can submit to write for publications. Luckily for me, one of my friends was already an editor on several publications that were a good fit for me, so I joined all of those, read the submission rules and got started. The aim is to get to 100 followers, as that is one of the criteria for being accepted onto the partner programme, which will then enable you to get paid.

I found it really easy to get 100 followers. I started following, reading, commenting and clapping on other writer’s work and they would do the same for me. I found people were following me after reading and responding to my About Me piece, and again, whenever I posted something, I’d get a new little burst of followers. It was exciting and felt a lot more worthy of my time than other social media platforms. Plus, I was really enjoying following and reading the work from other writers!

Once I got my 100 followers, and had posted enough articles, I applied for the partner programme and got in. A month after that I got my first payment! I was thrilled to bits. It was for just under $3 so didn’t quite cover my membership fee, but it spurred me on. This was starting to look really doable. And I was enjoying it!

I still am. I think Medium is a great platform for all kinds of writers. I just got my second payment the other day and it was just over $8 dollars. Again, I was absolutely thrilled. I’ve made a little profit and covered my membership fee. I now feel even more determined to write and post more quality pieces to up my earnings again for next month. In fact, I now have a goal in mind of £200 a month. That would be a really nice extra income stream for writing things I would have written anyway.

If you are interested, here’s a short breakdown of the pros and cons I’ve found so far!

Pros

  • you can post anything, though of course there is guidance and some rules so make sure you read these first. Some writers only post poetry, some only political articles, some lifestyle pieces and so on. It’s totally up to you.
  • There is a publication for everything! I am currently a writer for 7 publications which gives me a good choice of who to submit it to whenever I write anything. Some of them are really niche, so you will definitely find one to suit your writing style and topics.
  • people are overwhelmingly positive and supportive. I’ve only had one critic on there which was a bit odd but we’ve unfollowed each other now. Everyone else has been absolutely lovely. Writers are keen to support each other as it increases the chance of the favour being returned
  • it’s like a co-operative of writers all helping each other and I love that!
  • editors can pick pieces to ‘boost’ which gives you even more visibility. This happened to me recently!
  • publications offer lots of prompts and challenges so you will never be without something to write about
  • Medium promotes the writers with ‘daily digest’ emails tailored to suit you. I try to read this every morning, a bit like reading a newspaper. I read as many as I can and clap and comment as much as I can too. It is a reciprocative platform so make sure you are helping out other authors too.
  • It’s super fast to gain genuine followers, unlike other social media sites!
  • You can get started by reusing old blog posts. Medium doesn’t mind if something has been published elsewhere before, but some of the publications do, so check first.
  • There are some very talented writers on there and I genuinely enjoy reading the Medium Digest each day!

Cons

  • It can be time consuming but I have managed to fit it in. In order to be supportive to others, you do need to follow, subscribe, clap, comment and share as much as you can. You can’t expect to help no one and still gain followers and views.
  • Like all internet platforms there are going to be some trolls, and some people who let you know they don’t like your writing, but overall, it is completely the opposite.
  • It leaves you with less content for your blog! I like to post on here weekly if I can, but it’s been less lately because every time I have an idea, I choose to put it on Medium instead!

That’s it. I can’t think of any other cons so far, but perhaps, further down the line I’ll feel differently. I think I will write an update post maybe six months from now and let you know how close I am to my payment goal and whether I have come across any other negative aspects to the site.

For now, I’d definitely recommend it. Facebook and Instagram have become such an echo chamber lately. Social media can be very depressing at times but so far, I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of the Medium community!

If you want to follow me, I’ll gladly follow you back: @chantelleatkins_17828

Character Interview: Josh Taylor from the Blackbirch Series by K.M Allan

~ ChanAtkins ~ 1 Comment

Hi and welcome to another character interview here on The Glorious Outsiders. K.M Allan is a writer I’ve been following for some time on social media. I’ve read all the books in her YA paranormal series, Blackbirch and I’m just about to dive into an ARC of the fourth and final installment! So, please welcome the series protagonist Josh to out character interview for November!

How old are you?

I am seventeen years old.

Where do you come from?

I lived in the city with my parents until they were killed in a car accident 6 months ago.

Where do you live? Describe it to us

I currently live in a small town off a highway. It’s called Blackbirch, and it’s filled with black birch trees, which is the only tree that grows around here. Most say it’s because of dark magick, and only my friends and I know that is the truth.

Do you have a family, if so tell us about them.

After my parents died, I moved in with my guardian, Grace. She was my mom’s best friend, and I live with her and her daughter, Sarah.

Who is your best friend and why?

Sarah is. She knows all my secrets and helps me when I’m not sure what to do.

Who is your worst enemy and why?

Eve Thomas. She wants to know all my secrets and use them in the worst way possible.

What are your talents?

I can use magick to heal people, and strength to protect them.

What are your flaws?

Not asking for help.

What do you think people think of you?

I hope they think of me as someone who is just trying to look after them.

What do you wish people knew about you?

That I’m just trying to fix all of my mistakes.

What’s your biggest fear?

Losing more of the people that I love.

What’s your biggest hope?

That I can one day live a normal life again and not be chased for the magick in my veins.

What’s your biggest secret?

That I don’t feel worthy of the responsibility that I have.

What is the worst thing you have done to another person?

My actions and mistakes have resulted in deaths. Of both good and bad people.

What kind of friend are you?

I like to think I’m a good one, but I’ve also put my friends in danger, and I don’t enjoy being that type of friend.

Is there anything about your life you would change?

The death of my parents.

Where would you like to be in 5 years time?

Hopefully living a normal life, not running from danger or from others trying to steal my magick.

Do you have any regrets?

I wish I had known more about my power when I first became aware of it. Then I could have used it in a way that didn’t hurt others.

How would you like to be remembered?

As someone who did the best he could.

What are your hobbies/how do you relax?

Reading, and watching movies with my friends, Sarah, and Max.

If you would like to find out more about this intriguing series, here is the Amazon link to the author’s page:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/K-M-Allan/e/B0849WFZG9?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_6&qid=1699006260&sr=8-6: Character Interview: Josh Taylor from the Blackbirch Series by K.M Allan