Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace Cover Reveal!

I am thrilled to present to you the Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace front and back covers! This is the third and final book in The Hazy Souls series.

Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace front cover, young adult paranormal fantasy

Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace back cover, young adult paranormal fantasy

First Draft of "Jeremy Chikalto and Leviathan Island" finished

I finished the first draft of my second novel, "Jeremy Chikalto and Leviathan Island" (Book II of The Hazy Souls). I'm hoping to have the second draft finished before Christmas. January is an important month for my novel because Spring semester doesn't start until January 22nd (I teach writing at Gloucester County College). January = writing/editing/rewriting every day! Not to mention I have to design my cover... and do internal formatting... and the back cover. Ahh! There's so much to do before the second baby arrives in March.

At the moment I'm doing a quick read-through and marking the scenes that drag. The beginning of the novel needs a complete rewrite, but I've seemed to hit the "zone" by the middle of the novel.  I'll have to elaborate on my descriptions to better create a sense of place and time. The action scenes need some build-up too.

I'll write again about my novel's progress in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to keep to a pretty strict schedule.

The Hunger Games as Inspiration

I just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Wow, that book reads fast. I wanted to read The Hunger Games for a while now, and have already purchased the second book in the trilogy. I knew I wanted to read The Hunger Games right before I really threw myself behind my second Hazy Souls novel, because I've heard such good things about it and stand by the advice that you need to read something well-written right before you write.

One drawback for me is that The Hunger Games is written in first person. My book is written in third person. I love reading first person books, it's just a little more difficult to adapt my style and pacing alongside my inspiration. I definitely respect The Hunger Games' sense of action and the immediacy of what's going to happen next. It's a real page turner. I'm hoping that my next book will be a faster read, particularly in the beginning as that is a section I've struggled with in the first book. It was also nice to read about Peeta, a good-natured boy who I didn't find the least bit boring, because I want Jeremy's character to grow to be more compassionate.

I think The Hunger Games will help me with:
1.) creating haunting locations
2.) streamlining action sequences
3.) bringing out the best in Jeremy